
Class ■' 
Book-J / 



Jf2 



ESENTED BY 



CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND 
THE CATHOLIC FATTH 

Including a Brief Account of New 

Thought and Other Modern 

Mental Healing Movements 



BY 

A. M. BELLWALD, S.M., S.T.L. 

MAR] ST COLLEGE, WASHINGTON, D.C. 



A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Sacred Sciences 
of the Catholic University of America in partial fulfillment 
of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Sacred Theology 




THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
1922 

All rights reserved 



mi 






CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND 
THE CATHOLIC FAITH 



*&&& 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS 
ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN & CO.. Limited 

LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE MACMILLAN CO. OP CANADA. Ltd. 

TORONTO 



CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND 
THE CATHOLIC FAITH 

Including a Brief Account of New 

Thought and Other Modern 

Mental Healing Movements 



■ 

J* BY 

A. MfBELLWALD, S.M., S.T.L. 

MARIST COLLEGE, WASHINGTON, D.C. 



A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Sacred Sciences 
of the Catholic University of America in partial fulfillment 
of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Sacred Theology 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
1922 

All rights reserved 



FEINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OP AMERICA 



■&# 



55 



Copyright, 1922, 
Br THE MACMrLLAN COMPANY 



Set up and printed. Published May, 1922. 



CBft 

UrJv- r - 



Press of 

J. J. Little & Ives Company 

New York, U. S. A. 






Jinprimi potest 

H. de La Chapelle, S. M. 
Provincialis 

J^iijtl olistat 

Charles F. Aiken, S. T. D. 
Censor deputatus 

Smprimatur 

»J* Michael J. Curley, D.D. 
Archiepiscopus 

Baltimorensis 

Baltimore, Md., March 23, 1922. 



PREFACE 

Why deal once more with Christian Science? With so many 
works already on the market, why increase the output by an- 
other study on this much debated subject? Christian Science 
will run its course, as other systems of thought, once much in 
evidence, have run theirs, and will not be materially influenced 
by the discussions to which it has given rise. Yet to discuss 
the subjects of the day is an intellectual need. The process of 
winnowing out truth from error must go on without interrup- 
tion, the more so in this case, as Christian Science skims over 
many subjects of the very highest importance, opening up to 
controversial minds fair vistas of debatable ground. 

But why associate New Thought with its traditional foe? 
The answer must be sought in the treatise itself, which makes 
plain that, whatever minor differences there may be between 
these two organizations, their wider aims and common pursuits 
unite them in a clearly defined group, and blend together natu- 
rally in a common discussion. 

Mind healing is not exactly an American invention or mo- 
nopoly. We shall see that it is practically coeval and coexten- 
sive with the human race. Yet in our own days and place it has 
taken on hues and shapes that differentiate it radically both 
from its remoter and its nearer ancestors, and it is assuming 
proportions that may yet put its European prototypes com- 
pletely in the shade. In its American dress, it has crossed both 
the Atlantic and the Pacific, and is making a successful bid for 
world supremacy in its chosen field. Under these circumstances, 
an inquiry into the origin, the underlying principles, and the 
methods of these movements must prove of interest, even if, 
from a religious point of view, they are not of sufficient moment 
to claim attention. 

Such an investigation is no longer a pioneer work. Many 
Protestant authors have turned their attention to this newer 



viii Preface 

Protestantism. Not a few scent, in this new gospel of health, 
danger for what they are pleased to call orthodox Christian- 
ity;. their works are polemical in character, and, on the whole, 
of but little intrinsic worth. Others, not particularly inter- 
ested in the Churches, have been attracted by the psychological 
problems which the real or pretended successes of these mind- 
healers have forced on their consideration. These, though pur- 
suing strictly scientific methods of investigation, but too often 
mar their work by an ill-disguised hostility, or a studied indif- 
ference to revealed religion, so that hardly any work of either 
class could be unreservedly recommended. 

From the Catholic viewpoint, few of the publications that 
have appeared, valuable though they are in their own way, can 
be said to do justice to the subject. A fairly complete list of 
these books, pamphlets and articles will be found in the bibli- 
ography, page 262. Among these we might single out, as of 
greater excellence, Father Lambert's Christian Science before 
the Bar of Reason, Fr. Thurston's Christian Science, in Lec- 
tures on the History of Religions, Fr. Searle's work entitled 
The Truth about Christian Science, and especially — in its scien- 
tific aspect — Dr. Walsh's various Avorks on psychotherapy. 
The present essay proposes, besides giving a short historical 
survey of mental healing, followed by a discussion of the causes 
that may serve to account for whatever success the movement 
has achieved, to discuss from the Catholic standpoint more 
fully than has as } T et been done, its philosophical and religious 
presuppositions, implications and doctrinal statements. 

There yet remains for me to fulfill the pleasant duty of 
thanking all those who have helped me in the preparation of this 
essay in any way whatever, by counsel, correction, or revision 
of the manuscript. I desire more particularly to express my 
sincere thanks to Rev. Charles C. Aiken, D.D., Dean of the 
Faculty of Sacred Sciences at the Catholic University of 
America, who suggested this work and who, by advice, encour- 
agement, and kind interest, very materially cooperated in its 
completion. 



CONTENTS 
CHAPTER I. 



PAGE 



Mind Cures of the Past and Present 1 

Extent of Mental Healing. Mind-healing in Assyria 
and Babylonia. In Persia. In Egypt. Modern paral- 
lels. Egyptian beliefs about sickness and healing. 
Greek Mental Cures. iEsculapius Apollonius of Tyana. 
Epidaurus. Mental healing in the Roman Empire. Ef- 
fects of Christianity on Pagan superstitions. Christian 
miracles not on a par with Pagan cures. Celsus attacks 
Christian miracles. Magic in Christian antiquity and 
in the Middle Ages. Theodosius II. Why people re- 
sorted to magic. Views of so-called scientists. Avicenna 
and menticulture. Prayer and mental healing. Delrio 
on superstitions. Christian Science no new discovery. 



CHAPTER II. 

The Modern Mind-Cure Movements 10 

Mental healing in modern times. Gassner's cures. 
Podmore on Gassner and Mesmer. Mesmer's "baquet." 
His philosophical views. Animal Magnetism. Mesmer's 
followers, Deslon and the marquis de Puysegur. The 
abbe Faria. Mesmerism after the French Revolution. 
The Academie des Sciences on animal magnetism. Ber- 
trand and Dr. Braid. Mesmerism in America. Poyen 
and Collyer. "Dr." Quimby and his control, Lucius 
Burkmar. Quimby's theories. Evans popularizes Quim- 
byism. Mrs. Eddy. Her early life. She marries 
George Washington Glover. Her widowhood and second 
marriage to Dr. Patterson. He abandons her. Mrs. 
Eddy's partnership with Richard Kennedy. Her third 
marriage, to Asa Gilbert Eddy. After his death Calvin 
A. Frye becomes Mrs. Eddy's manager. She adopts a 
foster son. Mrs. Eddy's literary activities. Her death. 
Spread of Christian Science. Social status of Christian 
Scientists. Christian Science proves profitable. Mrs. 



Contents 



Eddy's greed for money. Origin of Christian Science. 
Julius A. Dresser. The New Thought movement un- 
der way. H. Wood and R. W. Trine. The new phi- 
losophy of life. Greenacre Conferences. The Meta- 
physical Club. New Thought conventions. Mind-healing 
in Chicago, San Francisco, Denver, St. Louis, Cleve- 
land. New Thought organization and congresses. Men- 
tal science literature. Charcot and Bernheim. Sug- 
gestion as a therapeutic agent. Dubois and Freud. 
Mental healing in Protestant Churches. Mr. Hickson. 
The Emmanuel movement. 



CHAPTER III. 

True Origin of Christian Science 35 

Claims of Mrs. Eddy. Her apotheosis among her 
followers. Mary Baker's physical and mental endow- 
ments. Her schooling. Her religious dispositions. 
Did she hear voices and have a dispute with her pastor? 
The date of her alleged revelation. The fall at Lynn. 
How Science and Health was written. Subsequent 
changes. Its relation to Quimby's "Essays." Mrs. 
Eddy and Mr. Spofford. Malicious Animal Magnetism. 
Mr. Wiggin's revision. Importance of the "textbook." 
The textbook and the Bible. The Church Manual and 
the textbook. The textbook is ordained Pastor. Chris- 
tian Science services. CommerciaUsm in Christian 
Science. Mrs. Eddy's ideas concerning revelation. 
Prohibition to teach for a year. Christian Science 
spoons. Mr. Peabody on Mrs. Eddy's alleged revela- 
tion. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Metaphysical Basis of Christian Science and New 

Thought 60 

Difficulty of understanding Mrs. Eddy. Mrs. Eddy's 
terminology. Difference between Mind and mind. Mrs. 
Eddy's conception of the Deity. Is Christian Science 
Pantheistic? Unreality of matter. God and the ma- 
terial world. Untrustworthiness of our senses. A di- 
rect refutation not possible. Mrs. Eddy's inconsistencies. 



Contents xi 

PAGE 

Mrs. Eddy's idealism not essentially different from other 
idealistic philosophies. New Thought and Idealism. 
The Oversoul. Things are thoughts and thoughts are 
things. Mysticism of Christian Science. 



CHAPTER V. 

Belief — Faith — Understanding 73 

Mrs. Eddy's psychology. Description of belief. Three 
groups of false beliefs so-called. Reductio ad absur- 
dum. Mortal Mind. Mrs. Eddy no puritan on close 
definitions. The works of mortal mind so-called. Mortal 
mind creates all the organism. A Pandora box of all 
evils. Creates an unhealthy atmosphere. How a 
mother's fears may create her child's illness. Mortal 
mind, mind-cures and medicine. Mortal mind vs. hu- 
man mind. Human belief an autocrat. Sickness pref- 
erable to erroneous beliefs. Why Mrs. Eddy discredits 
other mental healing. Faith as a curative factor. Dis- 
tinction between faith and belief. What is meant by 
understanding. Struggle between belief and under- 
standing both in the individual and in the race. Purga- 
tion continues in the hereafter. Understanding estab- 
lishes new relations. Truth and error in Christian 
Science. Mrs. Eddy's relations to Liberalism in The- 
ology. Her extravagances. 

CHAPTER VI. 

Malicious Animal Magnetism 91 

Malicious Animal Magnetism is Mrs. Eddy's chief 
invention. History of the term. W. W. Wright attacks 
Eddyism. Mrs. Eddy condemns manipulation. Mrs. 
Eddy must explain her former conduct. How the 
chapter on malicious animal magnetism got into the first 
edition of Science and Health. Richard Kennedy and 
malicious animal magnetism. M. A. M. becomes a life- 
long obsession. Not inconsistent with Christian Sci- 
ence teaching. Legislation against mental malpractice. 
M. A. M. and the civil courts. The famous witchcraft 
case in Salem, Mass. Two brands of malicious animal 
magnetism. Mrs. Eddy's changes of residence due to 
her fear of M. A. M. M. A. M. and inanimate ob- 
jects. It interferes with the printing of the magazine. 



xii Contents 

PAQB 

Mrs. Eddy's sufferings caused by M. A. M. Her house- 
hold. Adverse treatment against M. A. M. The new 
freedom. Mr. Eddy and the new freedom. Mrs. Eddy 
summons a physician. Her husband dies. An autopsy. 
Mrs. Eddy's frantic fears. Mrs. Eddy's need of the 
doctrine of malicious animal magnetism. 

CHAPTER VII. 

The Fact of Mental Cures 109 

Division of modern mind-cures. Mrs. Eddy claims 
unlimited healing powers. Mr. Evans and mind-cures. 
Christian Science cures reported in the "textbook," in 
the "Journal" and in the "Congressional Record." Sen- 
ator Works pleads for Christian Science in the U. S. 
Senate. Miss Meek. The infant child of Mr. and 
Mrs. A. K. Wine. Dr. Burton's cure. A summary of 
cures. Healing as a religious rite. Expert opinion. 
Professor William James on healthy-mindedness. Fail- 
ures are no absolute refutation. Dr. Reed on the success 
of Christian Science. Dr. James J. Walsh. Extent of 
mental healing. Are organic diseases open to mental 
influences? Views of physicians contrasted with those 
of modern mind healers. Sadler, Walsh, Bernheim, 
Worcester. The practice of modern mind-healers con- 
flicts with their theories. Practitioners are advised to 
decline infectious diseases, may consult M.D.'s. Al- 
leged dangers of diagnosing a case. Condemnation of 
the medical profession. Physicians qualify their state- 
ments, as to organic diseases. Dr. Cabot and Dr. 
Paget on Christian Science cures. The challenge of 
Dr. Townsend. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Methods of Mental Healing 129 

A variety of methods. Practice less radical than 
theory. Food and drink. Mrs. Eddy's views on hy- 
giene. Her practice. Classification of mental healing 
methods. "Doctoring" the soul. Mrs. Eddy's instruc- 
tions to practitioners. Faith a factor in cures. Need 
of a spiritual housecleaning. How to treat a relapse. 
Difference between hypnotic cures and modern mind- 
healing. The tactual and the visual method. The silent 
treatment. Distant treatment. The verbal or vocal 
treatment. These methods become a rule of life. 



Contents xm 

CHAPTER IX. 

PAGE 

Mind and Body 143 

The real explanation to be sought in the intimate re- 
lations between mind and body. The Scholastic phi- 
losophy avoids both materialism and excessive idealism. 
The soul as the forma substantialis of the body. The 
intellectual soul as the principle of all activity in the 
human compound. Scholasticism vs. Platonism. Dis- 
tinction of faculties. The imagination as mediating 
between sense and intellect. The bodily organism is 
affected by the imagination. The Scholastics were chary 
about practical application of their theory. Excessive 
claims for the imagination. A certain influence admitted 
by all. 

CHAPTER X. 

Explanation or Mental Cures 153 

Mrs. Eddy's explanations do not explain. Are Chris- 
tian Science cures natural or supernatural? Christian 
Science vs. hypnotic cures. Mrs. Eddy's opposition to 
hypnotism. The effect of waking suggestions and auto- 
suggestion. Meaning of suggestion and of subconscious 
mind. Effects of suggestion. Mechanism of mental 
healing. Respective claims of the intellect and the will. 
The will according to Mrs. Eddy is essentially evil. 
The will as a therapeutic agent. Its limits. The 
will open to suggestion. The intellect, inasmuch 
as it perceives things as either good or bad. The 
imagination as a therapeutic agent. Benedict XIV. on 
the power of the imagination. The heart in mind- 
healing. Modern mind-cures explained according to 
these principles. Christian Science causes a real mental 
revolution in many persons. 

CHAPTER XL 

The Religious Tenets of the New Movement . . . . 172 
The Spirit of the new movement is towards liberal 
Christianity. Religion subordinated to the pursuit of 
health. Christian dogmas rejected or minimized or 
perverted. The modern mind-movements are ingrafted 
on historical Christianity. Mrs. Eddy's liberal Chris- 



Contents 



tianity not undogmatic. Christian Science and ancient 
heresies. Gnosticism, Docetism. Christian Science is 
anti-Trinitarian in belief. The Virgin-Birth retained. 
The Atonement explained away. Christian Science re- 
jects all sacraments. Their view of salvation, of heaven 
and hell. Intellectual chaos in the New Thought move- 
ment. 

CHAPTER XII. 

Prayer and Christian Science 182 

Is Christian Science a religion of prayer? Who was 
right, the Publican or the Pharisee? Sin is not forgiven 
through prayer. Forgiveness does not mean a dispensa- 
tion to commit sin. Mrs. Eddy confounds sin and evil 
habits. Mrs. Eddy's objections against impetrative 
prayers. Prayer for health is not only useless, but 
harmful. Mrs. Eddy's objections against audible 
prayers. What is the meaning of prayer in Chris- 
tian Science? Prayer is desire. Christian Science 
Church services. Mrs. Eddy's spiritual interpretation 
caricatures the Lord's Prayer. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Ethics of the Modern Mind-Movements 192 

Pragmatism of the modern mind movements. To 
health is assigned the very highest rank. Sin classed 
with physical evils. Sickness deemed essentially evil. 
Is Christian Science really antinomian ? Antinomianism 
lurks not in Mrs. Eddy's direct teaching, but may be 
fostered by her principles. Sin is punished as long as 
it lasts. Mrs. Eddy's own sense of sin. Her teaching 
concerning marriage not always flippant. Her objections 
to material generation. Mrs. Woodbury and the Prince 
of Peace. The moral Code of Christian Scientists not 
an exalted one. It represents a refined epicureanism. 
They misinterpret the goodness of God. Their end in 
view lowers their moral standard. Difference between 
Christian Science and Christian Asceticism. Fillmore 
on Thought-Causes. To ban all worry is to stunt the 
conscience. Christian Science teaching and objective 
truth. The praise of Love. Their lives belie their pro- 
fession. 



Contents Scv 

CHAPTER XIV. 

PAGE 

The New Movement vs. Miracles 208 

The supernatural character of Christ's miracles de- 
nied. Quimby's views. Evans on Christ's miracles. 
Mrs. Eddy and the miracles of Christ. The authors of 
the Emmanuel movement. The denial of miracles based 
on false philosophical principles. How Christ is classed 
with the mind healers. Some classes of diseases ex- 
cluded by some. The man stricken with the palsy. 
Necessity of faith. Unity with God another requisite. 
This explanation widely accepted. Are miracles evidence 
for the truth of Christianity? How Hudson reverses 
this proof. Christ's humanity exalted, the better to deny 
His Divinity. The objections to miracles mainly phil- 
osophical. If Christ is God, we must expect divine 
works. The preternatural character of Christ's works 
conceded by earlier opponents of Christianity. How 
the methods of attack have varied throughout the cen- 
turies. What is a miracle? Various ways to establish 
the natural or supernatural character of a fact. How 
miracles are differentiated from merely mental cures. 
A biased mind cannot admit these distinctions. The 
appeal to unknown laws. Did Christ work His miracles 
as credentials to His Mission and Person? The witness 
of St. John. The testimony of the Synoptics. The 
fallacy of the critical contentions. Taken as recorded, 
Christ's miracles are undoubtedly supernatural. Con- 
clusion. The gift of miracles in the Church. The 
miracles of Lourdes. 



CHAPTER XV. 

Conclusion: The Latest Events in Christian Science 235 
Losses and gains. Symptoms of original fervor and 
symptoms of revolt. The lawsuit of the "next friends." 
Retrospect: the year 1878. Mrs. Eddy's desire to see 
her son. Mr. Glover's last visit to his mother. Mrs. 
Eddy removes to Boston. Mrs. Augusta Stetson. Her 
noonday meetings. Overflow meetings prohibited. Plans 
for a new church building. How Boston met this chal- 
lenge. Mrs. Stetson replies. The spontaneous expres- 
sion of gratitude. Mrs. Eddy accepts the gift and cen- 
sures the giver. The "Findings and Orders." Mrs. 



Contents 



Stetson is disciplined. The New York revolt. The 
Board of Directors and the Christian Science Publish- 
ing Society. Mr. Rowlands removed by the Board. 
What results from Mr. Dittemore's protest. The trus- 
tees sue the Board. Outcrop of these legal contentions. 
Mrs. Stetson's grievances. Conclusion. 



Bibliography 
Index . 



249 
263 



CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND 
THE CATHOLIC FAITH 



CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND THE 
CATHOLIC FAITH 

CHAPTER I 

MIND-CURES OF THE PAST AND PRESENT 

From the world's grayest antiquity down to our own days, 
man made use of mental powers in the healing of disease. Men- 
tal healing has held, and is holding to-day, a well-nigh world- 
wide sway which links together, in a common practice and 
belief, reputably the highest with the very lowest types of 
humanity. To show this relationship between the past and the 
present, between the practices of civilized nations and those of 
savages, we must perforce extend the range of our survey and 
take in subjects which have but a remote connection with the 
modern mind-movements. 

The two main features that characterize these modern heal- 
ing cults are (1) their preoccupation about health, and (2) 
the religious element which they contain. Religion differen- 
tiates them from scientific psychotherapeutics (mind-healing) 
and from psycho-analysis (healing by mind analysis), from 
which the religious element may be conspicuously absent, while 
preoccupation about health distinguishes them from religions 
whose principal aim and object is something quite different from 
mere bodily well-being. This alliance between religion and medi- 
cine is at least as old as the oldest written records we possess of 
man. If Assyria and Babylonia are to us memories with a hazy 
impression of unimaginable antiquity, we must learn to look 
upon these nations as young, when we compare them with the 
Accadians or Sumerians who had occupied their country before 
them. Mind-healing was in a flourishing condition even at that 
early date. This we may learn from the Sumerian language 

1 



2 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

which, in the seventh century before Christ, had become a 
sacred tongue, unintelligible to the masses, yet still in use for 
religious rites and incantations in the temples. The Sumerian 
texts, which the last century has unearthed, take us back to 
the days when Sumerian was as living a tongue as English is 
to us, and prove beyond doubt that even at that early date the 
very closest relation existed between religion and healing: the 
priests were the physicians, and regaining health was, partly 
at least, a religious exercise ; incantations took the place of 
suggestions, and the expectation of health from the spiritual 
world advantageously replaced a similar expectation in our own 
day from mind, be it human or Divine. 

The empires of the Medes and the Persians either shared 
these usages or inherited them at the time when they subdued the 
earlier kingdoms. Under their scepter, these practices ob- 
tained such a vogue that in Roman times, occult arts became 
all but identified with the Persian priests, or Magi. The very 
word magic is derived from the Persian and remains in our 
modern tongues as a historical monument, reminding us of the 
beliefs and practices of those superstitious ages. 1 

But the countries now known as Mesopotamia possessed no 
monopoly on mental healing. Egypt shared with them the 
doubtful honor of seeking protection and relief from bodily dis- 
ease by religious and mental means. 

"Diseases and pain," writes Dr. Renouf, "being caused 
by the intervention of some god, the efficacy of the medicines 
which are taken is chiefly owing to the prayers or incanta- 
tions which are said over them. Isis is the great enchantress 
and she delivers the sick and suffering from the gods and god- 
desses who afflict them, even as she delivered her son Horus 
from his wounds received in his battle with Set." 2 

There is a certain charm, as well as intellectual and moral 
profit, in this work of comparison between the past and the 

x On this subject may be consulted Lenormant: Chaldean Magic, Its 
Origin and Development' (London, 1877); Maspero: Life in Ancient Egypt 
and Assyria (New York, 1892); Morris Jastrow, Jr.: Aspects of Religious 
Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria (New York, 1911). 

2 Renouf: The Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by the Re- 
ligion of Ancient Egypt, Hibbert Lectures for 1879 (New York, 1880), p. 
220. 



Mind-Cures of the Past and Present 3 

present. Especially at a time when, from every popular source 
of information, it is unceasingly dinned into the ears of the 
great public that ours is an age of unlimited progress and im- 
measurably superior to any that preceded it, it is well to 
learn humbler sentiments by a backward glance, that reveals, 
in the remotest past, if not absolutely identical institutions and 
sentiments, — a thing that no one could reasonably expect, — 
yet withal recognizable parallels. Not only the modern vogue 
of mind-healing, but even the underlying sentiments on which 
the practice is grounded, are a case in point. Of the ancient 
Egyptians Maspero writes: 

"The Egyptians are not yet resigned to think that illness 
and death are natural and inevitable. They think that life, 
once commenced, should be indefinitely prolonged ; if no acci- 
dent intervened, what reason could there be for its ceasing? 
In Egypt, therefore, man does not die, but some one or some- 
thing assassinates him. The murderer often belongs to our 
world and can be easily pointed out : another man, an animal, 
an inanimate object, a stone detached from the mountain, a 
tree falling upon a traveler and crushing him. Often, though, 
it belongs to the invisible world and only reveals itself by the 
malignity of its attacks : it is a god, a spirit, the soul of a 
dead man that has cunningly entered a living person or that 
throws itself upon him with irresistible violence. Once in pos- 
session of the body, the evil influence breaks the bones, sucks 
out the marrow, drinks the blood, gnaws the intestines and 
the heart and devours the flesh. The invalid perishes ac- 
cording to the progress of this destructive work and death 
speedily ensues unless the evil genius can be driven out before 
it has committed irreparable damage." x 

As disease was something mental, so also was its treatment. 
Maspero continues : 

''Whoever treats a sick person has, therefore, two equally 
important duties to perform. He must first discover the na- 
ture of the spirit in possession and, if necessary, its name, 
and then attack it, drive it out or even destroy it. He can 
only succeed by powerful magic, so he must be an expert in 

1 Maspero: Life in Ancient Egypt avd Assyria (New York, 1892), p. 118. 



4 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

reciting incantations, and skillful in making amulets. He 
must then use medicine to contend with the disorders which 
the presence of the strange being has produced in the body ; 
this is done by a finely graduated regime and various reme- 
dies. The cure-workers are, therefore, divided into several 
categories. Some incline towards sorcery and have faith in 
formulas and talismen only; they think they have done 
enough if they have driven out the spirit. Others extol the 
use of drugs. . . . The best doctors carefully avoid binding 
themselves to either method ; they carefully distinguish be- 
tween those cases in which magic is sovereign and those in 
which natural methods suffice, whilst their treatment is a mix- 
ture of remedies and exorcisms which vary from patient to 
patient." x 

If now we pass over from Africa to Europe we meet with 
similar conditions among the Greeks. Famous in the annals of 
medicine is the Greek god of the healing art, ^Esculapius. If 
Egypt had its Serapiums or temples dedicated to the god 
Serapis, where wonderful cures are said to have taken place, 
Greece numbered among its temples many famous sanctuaries 
dedicated to .Esculapius, and, preeminent among them, those 
of Epidauros in Argolis, Greece, and of JEgse in Cilicia, Asia 
Minor, where Apollonius of Tyana is credited with having per- 
formed some wonderful cures.- The sick would resort to these 
temples, sleep there one or several nights, and not unfrequently 
recover their health, as it was believed, through remedies indi- 
dated in their dreams by the god of health. No one nowadays 
doubts that the trustful expectation which brought the pa- 
tients to the temples — an attitude which we now would call 
auto-suggestion — was a most important factor in their even- 
tual recovery. 

The Roman Empire, too, proved a very fertile field for 
the spread of these beliefs and practices. From everywhere 

x Maspero: op. cit., p. 119. Cf. George Rawlinson: History of Ancient 
Egypt (New York, 1886), Vol. II, p. 269: "Asia poured the fetid stream of 
her manifold superstitions into Africa, and to the old theology was added a 
wild and weird demonology which proved wonderfully attractive to the now 
degenerated Egyptians." 

2 Cf. Farnell, L. R.: Greek Hero Cults and Ideas of Immortality (Lon- 
don, 1921). 



Mind-Cures of the Past and Present 5 

superstition flocked to Rome, and from Rome, in turn, it 
radiated in all directions. But a check now begins to make it- 
self felt against all brands of superstition. About this time a 
fact penetrates into history, small in appearance but mighty 
in its future possibilities. Boldly it confronts ancient civili- 
zation, its corruptions and superstitions, with a new order in 
which, too, cures play a prominent part. Christianity, slowly 
but surely, is leavening the ancient mind with new ideas ; it sets 
its miracles against the claims and achievements of the past, 
and it conquers. 

To group together Christian miracles and Pagan marvels 
with modern mental cures is now looked upon as scientific, as 
though everything extraordinary must necessarily flow from 
the same source. At the time, however, when the two civiliza- 
tions, Pagan and Christian, flourished side by side, people were 
not caught by superficial resemblances that might exist between 
the works of God and the works of charlatans. A Simon Magus 
saw at a glance the differences between his trade and that of 
the preachers of the Gospel. When, later, a Celsus attempted 
to do what now modern Christians do without scruple, and, in 
his attacks on Christianity, sought to identify the miracles of 
Christ with the performances of Pagan jugglers, he found an 
Origen who brilliantly refuted the fallacies of his Pagan an- 
tagonist. 1 While in the miracles of their Lord the Christians 
found solid ground for their faith, they either saw in Pagan 
marvels nothing else but feats of skill or ascribed them to the 
power of evil spirits. 2 Works must be weighed in the scales 

1 Origen: Against Celsus, Book I, chap. 6, in Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 
IV, p. 399: "He (Celsus) next proceeds to bring a charge against the Savior 
Himself, alleging that it was by means of sorcery that He was able to 
accomplish the wonders which He performed." Ibid., p. 413 (chap. 38). 
"He desires to throw discredit on them as being done by the help of magic 
and not by divine power." Ibid., p. 427 (chap. 68) : "He immediately com- 
pares them to the tricks of jugglers who profess to do more wonderful 
things and to the feats performed by those who have been taught by Egyp- 
tians." The Greek original is to be found in Migne's Patrologia Oraeca, 
Vol. XI. The whole treatment of this subject by Origen is well worth 
perusing. 

a Tertullian: Apologeticus adversus Gentes, chap. 22, says in relation to 
this: "They (the evil spirits) first harm, then prescribe astonishing rem- 
edies, then cease to harm and are believed to have cured. Laedunt enim 
primo, dehinc remedia praecipiunt ad miracula nova, sive contraria, post 
quae desinunt laedere, et curasse creduntur." 



6 Christian Science and tfie Catholic Faith 

of a dispassionate judgment; such superficial resemblances as 
may be established between modern mind-cures and those of 
Christ do not, on that account, place them in the same rank. 

The magical practices of the Pagan world never disap- 
peared entirely. The Church inveighed against them; her 
ministers warned the faithful against this danger to their faith ; 
even in such intimate matters as that of bodily health, we 
find St. Augustine giving detailed directions to the Christians ; 
the State undertook to suppress the Pagan cults, but all in 
vain. When the temples were closed in the cities, the Pagan 
priests and sorcerers found an asylum in remote country places 
and continued their practices. 1 When Theodosius II in the 
first half of the fifth century undertook to clear up also the 
country places, by destroying the temples and erecting the 
Cross on their location, 2 the magical practices continued to 
flourish in secret, adopting gradually certain features borrowed 
from Christianity, but, on the whole, remaining essentially 
Pagan. 3 

Among the causes that made people resort to superstitious 
practices, the desire to secure, protect, and safeguard health 
must have held a prominent place. It can hardly be doubted 
that self-deception and self-suggestion played an important 
part in rendering occult means efficacious and in strengthening 
by this very success the ancient superstitious beliefs. A good 
many factors contributed to widen this sway of superstition. 
There is the question of heredity and tribal solidarity. Clusters 
of young and impulsive nations, not yet emerged out of barbar- 
ism, about this time came to be gathered into the folds of the 
Church, and, among them, many a deep-seated, long-cherished 
superstition continued to flourish despite the Church. It might 

1 These districts were called pagi; hence about this time the unbelievers 
came to be called pagani or Pagans. 

1 Corpus Juris Civilis, Paris, 1628, lib. 25, p. 331 : "Cunctaque eorum fana, 
templa, delubra, si quae etiam nunc restant integra, praecepto magistra- 
tuum destrui, collocationeque venerandae religionis Christianae signi expiari 
praecipimus." 

s Cf. Maury: La Magie et I'Astrologie dans I' Antiquity et au Moyen Age 
(Paris, 1864), pp. 14.5 ff. Leuba, in American Anthropologist, Vol. XIV 
(1912), pp. 333 ff., "The Varieties, Classification and Origin of Magic." 
Saintyves: La Force Magique (Paris, 1914). Cf. especially St. Augustine: 
De Doctrina Christiana, lib. I., cap. 23, 29. 



Mind-Cures of the Past and Present 7 

change its garment for something more acceptable to Christian 
minds, but this outward covering could not conceal its Pagan 
origin. Again, there is the question of ignorance. Not that 
fabulous absolute darkness which, in certain quarters, has 
earned for this period the unenviable name of Dark Ages, but 
that relative ignorance of the laws of nature, which made every 
disease a mysterious visitation either from on high or from 
below. It were a vain dream to expect that the learned would 
rise so high above the common beliefs and fears and hopes of 
their times as to remain uninfluenced by all their cruder and 
more immature conceptions. A universal Cartesian doubt was 
unknown to them. They were men of their own times and of 
their own stock. Some few might rise head and shoulders above 
their fellows : an Albert the Great or Roger Bacon might ap- 
pear who would astonish future ages even more than their con- 
temporaries ; x yet they remain, in some respects, brilliant ex- 
ceptions, and in others, children of their own age. 2 

There is a third cause which contributed perhaps as much as 
the other two combined, if not more, to perpetuate this state of 
affairs. It was the learned arrogance of the pretended scholars 
of the day, of the physician who spoke in high-sounding terms 
and with bold assurance, and of the philosopher who prided 
himself on knowing all the secrets of the universe. A man like 
Ibn Sina, better known to the Western World as Avicenna, is 
a typical representative of this class of men. 3 Considering the 
extent of the powers which, in his work on the soul, he ascribes 

1 Albert the Great (c. 1206-1280), according to Dr. Kennedy, "expressed 
contempt for everything that savored of enchantment or the art of magic. 
'Non approbo dictum Avicennae et Algazel de fascinatione quia credo quod 
non nocet fascinatio, nee nocere potest ars magica, nee facit aliquid ex his 
quae timentur de talibus.' " Cf. Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. I, p. 265. 

Roger Bacon (1214-1291), the justly celebrated Franciscan friar, wrote 
among others a treatise on the nothingness of magic "De Nullitate Magiae." 
Cf. Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. XIII, p. 112. The article on Roger Bacon 
is written by the Franciscan, Theophilus Witzel. 

2 Even St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) admitted an indirect influence 
of the heavenly bodies on the human character (Summa Theologia, Pars. I, 
q. 95, art. 5) and believed in the reabty of the evil eye that could physically 
harm, especially tender children {ibid., q. 117, art. 3, ad 2). 

3 Avicenna (980-1037), an Arabian philosopher and physician exercised 
great influence over the Christian scholars. Consult Catholic Encyclopedia, 
Vol. II, p. 157, article by Bishop William Turner. Also Summa Theologia, 
loc. cit., and Delrio, Disquisitionum Magicarum libri sex (Mainz, 1624), lib. 
I, pp. 16 ff. 



8 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

to the perfect mind, he might well be styled Mrs. Eddy's prede- 
cessor and master. Among these powers may be mentioned 
that of fascination, that of healing at a distance, that of dis- 
placing objects, and of producing lightning and rain by sheer 
power of will. The reasons Avicenna assigns for these beliefs 
are not unworthy of those of the modern mind-healers. He 
taught that matter, by nature, obeys spiritual substances 
rather than other agents, and, consequently, that a strong 
imagination compels material bodies to conform. His followers, 
speak of powerful rays that issue from the body of those whom 
nature has endowed with healing powers, and of bodily humors 
which the soul can propel far beyond the narrow limits of 
the body. 

Side by side with magical practices there existed all through 
the Middle Ages a class of mind-cures, — if the appellation may 
be permitted in this case, — which had nothing to do with occult 
practices, but relied solely on the protection, intercession and 
help of God, the angels, and the saints. Even the most staunch 
believer in the efficacy of prayer for man's bodily, as well as 
spiritual, welfare will not deny, that, over and above a direct 
help from heaven, there may exist in prayer a natural virtue, 
which will benefit sick persons who put their heart and soul 
into this exercise. On its natural side even prayer may be 
open to superstitious admixtures, from which it has always 
been the endeavor of the Church to free it. In vain did the 
celebrated Jesuit priest Delrio, at the end of the sixteenth 
century, plead against such an inroad of questionable beliefs 
and practices. He was answered by a reference to the fact 
of their success. 1 Soldiers healed their wounds by what was 
styled St. Anselm's art ; in Spain a class of healers practiced 
with success under the name of "saludadores" ; in Italy similar 
professional healers went by the name of "Gentiles S. Cath- 
arinae" or "Gentiles S. Pauli" ; in Belgium children born on 

1 Delrio: op. cit., p. 24; "Obiiciuntur varia curationum genera mire fre- 
quentia." Cf. pp. 24-27. Also Buckley: Faith-Healing, Christian Science 
and Kindred Phenomena, (New York, i892), especially pp. 169-238. Here 
we might mention the widespread belief in England and France that their 
kings could cure certain diseases, called on that account king's evil, by their 
touch or by blessing rings which the patient had to wear. 



Mind-Cures of the Past and Present 9 

Good Friday were, by that very fact, believed to be endowed 
with the gift of healing. 

On passing from the civilized to the uncivilized nations to 
the so-called primitive peoples who, owing to the primitive or 
low state of their civilization, find themselves on the lowest 
rung of human culture, we find under other forms the same 
efforts at mental healing, with the same general belief in the 
superiority of the spiritual over the material. For what is 
fetishism but a form of mental culture which, based on super- 
stition, expects protection, preservation, defense, health, fe- 
cundity, power, riches, and happiness through the instrumental- 
ity of the horn or tooth of an animal, a shell, a stone, or what- 
ever other fetish the savage may believe in? 1 Here we have 
another important link in the chain of evidence for the uni- 
versality of mental cures. 

We can gather from these considerations that Christian 
Science does not stand in the world as an isolated event ; its 
pretense to the discovery of a new principle of cure is not borne 
out by the facts of history. Its claim to be the result of a new 
revelation has against it, as a prima facie objection, an unin- 
terrupted series of facts that bear witness to mental healing 
throughout all ages. True, there is no identity, properly so- 
called; yet there is enough similarity to justify its classification 
with these its antecedents. In the next chapter we shall trace 
more in detail its historical rise from its immediate forbear, 
mesmerism. 

1 Cf. Le Roy, Mgr. A.: La Religion des Primitifs (Paris, 1911), pp. 
270 ff.; also A. R6ville: La Religion des Peuples non civilises, Vol. I, p. 81. 



CHAPTER II 



MODERN MIND-MOVEMENTS 



During the eighteenth century the belief in the prevalence 
of witchcraft gradually made way for a more natural and 
cheerful outlook on life. 1 Men ceased to dread the existence 
everywhere of malign influences, but continued strongly to be- 
lieve in abnormal curative powers. Even today the names of 
Paracelsus and Mesmer, to mention only a few among many, 
are not unknown. 2 While men of lesser note are forgotten, 
the fame of these is still glimmering sufficiently to show the 
thread of historic continuity that binds the present to the past. 
Mesmer is commonly credited with being the father of the 
modern mind-movements : a hasty sketch of his work and en- 
vironment must, therefore, find a place here. 

In the second half of the eighteenth century an Austrian 
priest, Gassner by name, won great fame through his remark- 

1 The executions for witchcraft in Salem, Mass., took place from July 19 
to September 22, 1692. In 1736 the English statute against witchcraft was 
repealed, although eight years later (17^8) Rhode Island reenacted its laws 
against witchcraft. The last trial for witchcraft in Germany was in 1749 at 
Wurzburg. In Switzerland, in the Protestant canton Glarus, a girl was exe- 
cuted on this score as late as 1783, and in Southwestern Russia a man was 
burned as a wizard in 1SJ7. Mrs. Eddy revived substantially the belief in 
black magic under the new names of mental malpractice or malicious ani- 
mal magnetism. On this subject consult an article by Father Thurston, 
S. J., in the Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. XV, p. 674. Also Buckley: op. cit., 
pp. 205 ff. 

2 Paracelsus (c. 1493-1541) is the reputed founder of the magnetic sys- 
tem of healing. After him Sir Kenelm Digby (1603-1665) achieved fame 
through his work On the Cure of Wounds by the Poicder of Sympathy 
(London, 1658). About the same time Goclenius, a professor of medicine in 
Marburg published a work entitled De Unguento Armario (The Weapon 
Salve). To this the Jesuit John Robert, Mho died in 1651, replied with his 
Short Anatomy of Goclenius' Treatise on the Magnetic Cure of Wounds. A 
controversy resulted in which Van Helmont, one of the most famous physi- 
cians and chemists of his day, took part. For curious medical superstitions 
that could have none but mental effectiveness consult Podmore, Mesmerism 
and Christian Science (Philadelphia, 1909). 

10 



Modem Mind-Movements 11 

able cures. Gassner, like so many others that come to the 
world with a message of relief, had earlier in his life passeH 
through a long siege of sickness, during which he came to form 
peculiar views on the nature of many diseases. Convinced 
that these infirmities were the result, not of natural agencies, 
but of evil spirits, he resolved to cure them by means of the 
exorcisms and prayers of the Church. He is commonly con- 
sidered to be the immediate predecessor of Mesmer. Of these 
two men and their mutual relations, Podmore says : 

"To the most recent of these healers, the Suabian priest 
J. J. Gassner, Mesmer probably owed many features of his 
practice. The five or six years ending with 1777 — when he 
was forced, by ecclesiastical interdict and Imperial decree, to 
quit Ratisbon — were those in which Gassner reached the 
zenith of his fame. During these years he resided chiefly at 
Ratisbon ; but he traveled about and visited many towns in 
Bavaria, healing by his word and touch. Mesmer . . . prior 
to his arrival in Paris in 1778 had for some years journeyed 
about Europe, amongst other countries in Suabia and Ba- 
varia. If he did not actually meet Gassner — and it is stated 
that he did — he must have heard of his fame, and been con- 
versant with his methods of operation. A noticeable point 
in Gassner's treatment was, that, as a preliminary to under- 
taking a cure, he would cause to be reproduced in the patient 
the pains and other symptoms of the disease. The exorcism 
by which he sought to expel the demon (to whose presence in 
the patient he attributed the disease) generally produced 
strong convulsions ; and the cure commenced only when they 
were calmed. Again, Gassner constantly chased the pain 
from one part of the body to another, finally chasing it out, 
by his command, from the fingers or toes. All these features 
are characteristic of Mesmer's early treatment, though, as 
we shall see, they soon disappeared in the practice of his suc- 
cessors," * 

1 Podmore: Mesmerism and Christian Science (Philadelphia, 1909), p. 27. 
Cf. Francis J. Schaeffer, in Catholic Encyclopedia, art. "Gassner." "Official 
investigations were made by the ecclesiastical authorities and all were favor- 
able to Gassner except that they recommended more privacy and de- 
corum. . . . He never departed from the Church's teaching or instructions 
concerning exorcism, and always disclaimed the name of wonder-worker. 
He was an exemplary priest, full of faith and zeal, and altogether unselfish 
in his works of mercy." 



12 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

Francis Anthony Mesmer (c. 1734-1815) is the real 
founder of the modern mind-movements. He is the link be- 
tween the old and the new, between medieval magic and modern 
mind-healing. His doctoral dissertation, entitled On the In- 
fluence of the Planets on the Human Body, fitly illustrates the 
medieval bend of his mind. Only a century earlier, he might 
have been a famous astrologer ; but at the end of the eighteenth 
century, with the world boasting of its enlightenment and 
scientific proficiency, he quite naturally exchanged the some- 
what stale explanation of stellar influence for the newer, and 
perhaps truer, concept of human magnetism. 

Mesmer was a Viennese physician ; but in reality his history 
begins with his arrival at Paris, in February, 1778. It is there 
that he achieved his success ; thence his disciples departed, to 
become in other lands the enthusiastic apostles of his dis- 
coveries ; there he established his famous "baquet," the sup- 
posedly magnetized vat, which became the instrument of his 
success. 

"In a room dimly lighted and hung with mirrors, his pa- 
tients were seated around a circular vat of considerable size, 
covered with a lid and containing various chemicals. A long 
cord connected the patients with one another, while in the 
lid of the tub were several holes, through each of which 
passed an iron rod bent in such a way that its points could be 
applied to any part of a patient's body. The patients were 
requested not to speak, the only sounds in the room being 
strains of soft music. "When expectancy was at its flood, 
Mesmer would enter, clad in the robe of a magician and car- 
rying an iron wand. At one patient he would gaze intently, 
another he would stroke gently with his wand. Soon some 
would burst into laughter, others into tears, while still others 
would fall into convulsions, finally passing into a lethargic 
state, out of which it is claimed they emerged cured or on 
the high road to a cure." * 

Mesmer's philosophical views were a peculiar amalgamation 

of science and superstition, of shrewd calculations and plain 

guesswork. There existed — so he taught — a universal fluid, 

1 Bruce: The Riddle of Personality (New York, 1917), p. 17. Cf. Pod- 
more, of. cit., p. 6 ff. 



Modern Mind-Movements 13 

subject to unknown mechanical laws, but akin to magnetism 
and to the electric current, and binding together in a common 
cause the celestial, terrestrial, and living bodies. The human 
body, in particular, did not remain outside its sphere of in- 
fluence, but was in itself a living magnet, endowed with negative 
and positive poles, and subject, like other magnets, to influences 
both celestial and terrestrial. Hence the name of animal mag- 
netism. This mysterious entity, like electricity, was scarcely 
subject to the restrictions of space; mirrors reflected and in- 
creased it, sound spread and amplified it. It was especially 
efficacious in nervous diseases, but even in other cases it was 
highly beneficial. If any magnetic treatment proved successful, 
it was entirely due to the presence, in man, of this animal 
magnetism. 

Mesmer's successes won for him the active support of 
Charles Deslon, the Regent of the faculty of Medicine in Paris 
University and physician to the Comte d'Artois. Another 
distinguished disciple was the Marquis de Puysegur who became 
the founder of the "Harmonie," one of the most celebrated mag- 
netic societies. Having paid his hundred "louis d'or" to learn 
Mesmer's secret, he returned to his patrimony to practice the 
new art at his leisure. His experiments brought to light a 
number of curious facts which are now well known to every 
hypnotist, such as somnambulism, clairvoyance, and telepathy. 
He abandoned Mesmer's "baquet" and obtained like successes 
by means of a "magnetized" tree. "The tree," he wrote to his 
brother, "is the best baquet possible ; every leaf radiates health 
and all who come experience its salutary influence." 1 

In the course of time Puysegur profoundly modified Mes- 
mer's theory of a universal magnetic fluid. In an address de- 
livered at Strassburg in 1785 he assured his audience that 
"the whole secret of animal magnetism lay in these two words : 
l Croyez et veuiUez,' believe and will." "Animal magnetism," he 
declared, "does not consist in the action of one body upon an- 
other, but in the action of the thought upon the vital principles 
of the body." 2 

1 Cf. Podmore: op. cit., pp. 63, 76-77. 

a Cf. Surbled, in Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. VII, pp. 605 ff., article 
"Hypnotism," 



14 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

These principles received a more systematic and complete 
development from the Indo-Portuguese priest Faria, of whom 
Dr. Surbled writes in the Catholic Encyclopedia: 

"The abbe Faria was the first to effect a breach in the 
theory of the magnetic fluid, to place in relief the importance 
of suggestion and to demonstrate the existence of auto-sug- 
gestion ; he also established the truth, that the nervous sleep 
belongs only to the natural order. From his earliest magne- 
tizing seances in 1814 he boldly developed his doctrine. Noth- 
ing comes from the magnetizer, everything comes from the 
subject and takes place in his imagination. Magnetism is 
only a form of sleep. Although of the moral order, the mag- 
netic action is often aided by physical or rather by physio- 
logical means : fixedness of look and cerebral fatigue. Here- 
in the abbe Faria showed himself a true pioneer, too little 
appreciated by his contemporaries, and even by posterity. 
He was the creator of hypnotism ; most of the pretended dis- 
coveries of the scientist of today are really his. We need not 
recall here that he practiced suggestion in the waking state 
and post-hypnotic suggestion." * 
After the storms of the French Revolution had somewhat 
subsided, interest in animal magnetism was revived. In Russia 
an imperial commission had reported in its favor as early as 
1815. In 1821 the Academy of Berlin proposed a prize for 
the best essay on this subject. England was overrun by a 
band of traveling mesmerists. In 1831 a commission of the 
French Academie des Sciences declared this mj'sterious mag- 
netic power of importance for physiology and therapeutics. 2 
The physician Alexandre Bertrand, who in his youth had come 
under Faria's influence, now welded together Mesmer's theories 
with those of Faria, by granting a large influence to the imagi- 
nation, without, on the other hand, denying the existence of a 
magnetic fluid. 3 

1 Surbled, in Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. VII, p. 604-605; Janet, Pierre: 
Les medications psychologiques, Vol. I, pp. 143 ff. 

'In Mesmer's time a similar commission, of which Benjamin Franklin 
and Lavoisier were members, had pronounced against the reality of Mes- 
mer's magnetic fluid and against attributing any scientific value to his 
theories. On this later occasion the Academy paid no attention to the 
recommendations of the commission, and its report remained unprinted. 

'Cf. Surbled: op. cit., p. 605. Concerning Bertrand's views Dr. Surbled 
remarks: "We are inclined to think that his view of the matter was a just 



Modern Mind-Movements 15 

It does not fall within the scope of this inquiry to trace 
in detail the vicissitudes of mesmerism. Only a bare mention 
can be accorded to a man whose pioneer work in these lines 
has won for him universal recognition. Dr. Braid, the Man- 
chester surgeon, more open-minded than most of his colleagues, 
satisfied himself of the reality of the mesmeric phenomena, and 
as a result of his own researches embraced and developed the 
views of Faria and Bertrand. He insisted that mental cures 
were the work of the patient's imagination under the directing 
influence of a hypnotic suggestion. 1 

Meanwhile mesmerism has crossed the Atlantic. There is 
a magnetic society in New Orleans as early as 1833. Three 
years later the French lecturer Charles Poyen tours the New 
England states in behalf of mesmerism and arouses general 
interest either in its favor or against it. The subject is taken 
up by a Dr. Collyer who, in 1838, lectures in Belfast, Maine, 
the home of the future "Dr." Quimby. Here in America, mes- 
merism splits into its component parts, or rather, develops 
into hypnotism, spiritism, and mental healing properly so- 
called. 2 Only the latter phase concerns us. 

The man who became instrumental in this transformation 
of mesmerism into the modern mind-movements, was one of 
humble origin, an eccentric, who was always ready to champion 
new ideas, and always willing to question existing beliefs and 
institutions. A kind-hearted man, nevertheless, he was, and 
his great success was not a little due to his winning ways, to 
his sympathetic personality. 3 Phineas Parkhurst Quimby 

one, and apt to lead up to the definite solution." On the other hand, the 
praises which Podmore {of. cit., p. 92) withholds from Faria to bestow them 
on Bertrand are really due the former. Faria's views, however, are not 
original with him, but represent in a recognizable manner the teaching of 
the Scholastics, and of Pope Benedict XIV. 

1 Dr. Braid substituted the name of neuro-hypnotism, later on simplified 
into hypnotism, for the older names of animal magnetism and mesmerism. 

2 Spiritism is commonly dated from the mysterious so-called Hydesville 
or Rochester rappings which occurred in 1848. Simultaneously with it, the 
mind-cure movements developed. 

3 Consult Dresser, Horatio W.: A History of the Neio Thought Move- 
ment (New York, 1919) ; idem, The Spirit of the New Thought (New York, 
1917); idem, Handbook of the New Thought (New York, 1917). Milmine, 
Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy and History of Christian Science first pub- 
lished serially in McClure's Magazine, 1907-1908, revised and published in 
book form, New York, 1909. 



16 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

(1803-1866) had acquired the reputation of being a skillful 
clockmaker, when, about 1838, the lectures of Poyen and Coll- 
yer converted him into an ardent mesmerist. He gave up his 
trade, chose as his partner a young man named Burkmar, over 
whom he exerted a most wonderful control, and began to give 
public exhibitions along the traditional lines. 

But Quimby's keen, though wholly untutored, mind was not 
long satisfied with the theories he had at first accepted. He 
became convinced that Burkmar's supposedly objective diag- 
nosis of various ailments did but reproduce the opinions either 
of the patient or of some others actually present at the time of 
this diagnosis, and that Burkmar's astonishing results in the 
healing art were due, not to the remedies he prescribed, but 
solely to the blind faith of the patient. An all too bold gen- 
eralization next led him to hold, not only that of itself no 
physical remedy was efficacious, but even that disease itself 
was nothing but a belief. 

This simplified mesmerism wonderfully. The gist of Quim- 
by's teaching, still maintained both in Christian Science and in 
New Thought, 1 can be thus summarized : "Disease is belief, and 
so is its cure. If you believe that you are sick, change this 
into the opposite belief, and you are well." With this principle 
to guide him, Quimby, in 1859, opened an office in Portland, 
Maine. His name and fame spread far and wide, and clients 
came flocking to him in ever increasing number. It was not 
until his own health broke down that he closed his office. This 
was in the summer of 1865. Quimby died early the following 
year (January 16) at his residence in Belfast, Maine, aged 
sixty-four. 2 

"Quimbyism" did not die with its founder. Rev. Warren 

*The expression New Thought has been used in England to express an 
entirely different system of thought. It is in its American meaning that the 
expression is to be understood throughout this work. 

a Quimby's education was of the scantiest. The son of a blacksmith, he 
had but a very brief period of schooling. This accounts for the fact that 
he was little of a reader and less of a writer. As a thinker he does not 
rank high, though we may allow him the honor of being an original and 
independent thinker. He left in manuscript ten volumes of his original 
thoughts. Mr. George A. Quimby, in whose possession his father's notes are, 
persistently refused permission to publish them during Mrs. Eddy's lifetime. 
They have been recently (1921) edited by Dr. Horatio W. Dresser. 



Modern Mind-Movements 17 

Felt Evans, at one time a Methodist minister, but, at the time 
when he placed himself under Quimby's treatment, a follower 
of Swedenborg, was the first to give it wider currency by means 
of the press. Quimby, always anxious to explain his theories 
to those willing to learn, was pleased to find in this clergyman 
an interested and intelligent disciple. At the time when Evans' 
first production in the interest of the new science appeared (in 
1869), Quimby himself had been dead for three years, and Mrs. 
Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, was working with 
might and main at a production which, eventually, was to 
eclipse the fame of all similar productions, but which was not 
to appear in print for another six years. This field, then, was 
far from being preempted; Evans was sowing in a virgin soil 
and reaped not an inconsiderable following. Even now his 
influence persists among the adherents of the New Thought 
movement. 1 



Mr. Evans, however, soon met with this rival, whose future 
success no human being would have ventured to predict at that 
time. Mary Baker, the now famous Mrs. Mary Baker G. Eddy, 
self-styled discoverer and founder of Christian Science, was 
born on a farm at Bow, New Hampshire, on July 16, 1821. 2 
Her earlier life, owing to her delicate constitution and nervous 
temperament, was marred by long periods of illness. When 
twenty-two years old, she married George Washington Glover, a 

1 The chief works of Mr. Evans are The Mental Cure (Boston, 1869) and 
The Divine Law of Cure (Boston, 1881). Mr. Evans bolsters Quimby's 
theories with numerous citations from the idealistic philosophers, both 
ancient and modern, mentioning among others Anaxagoras, Pythagoras, 
Plato, Schelling, Fichte, and Hegel. His star witness, however, is Bishop 
Berkeley's Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge. 
Evans finally established a mind-cure sanatorium in Salisbury, Massachu- 
setts, where he died in 1889. 

2 The most trustworthy life of Mrs. Eddy is Miss Milmine's Life of 
Mary Baker G. Eddy and History of Christian Science (New York, 1909). 
Entirely untrustworthy are Mrs. Eddy's Retrospection and Introspection 
(Boston, 1899), and Miss Sibyl Wilbur's Life of Mary Baker Eddy (Boston, 
1907). Other works that may be recommended are Peabody, Frederick "W.: 
The Beligio-Medical Masquerade, a complete exposure of Christian Science 
(New York, 1910 and 1915) and Mark Twain's humorous, though at the 
same time quite serious, essays entitled Christian Science (New York, 1907). 



18 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

friend of the family and a bricklayer by trade. Mr. Glover 
took his young bride to South Carolina, but within six months 
he died, leaving his widow almost destitute among strangers 
(1844). The Freemasons gave Mr. Glover a decent burial and 
conveyed his widow back to her father's house in Tilton, New 
Hampshire, where her only child was born. She named him 
after his deceased father, George Washington Glover. 

In 1853, after ten years of widowhood, marred by almost 
continuous ill-health, Mrs. Glover became the wife of an itiner- 
ant dentist named Daniel Patterson. The state of her health 
continued most unsatisfactory. It was as Mrs. Patterson that 
she visited on two occasions (1862 and 1864) Dr. Quimby, 
whose influence over her mental and physical life had such far- 
reaching results. Not long after the second visit, in 1866, Mr. 
Patterson declared common life with his wife unbearable, made 
provision for her support and abandoned her. 1 Now began a 
most distressful period in Mrs. Eddy's life, the memory of 
which she would have liked to blot out. Abandoned by all, 
even by her nearest kin, she had to obtrude herself on strangers, 
who soon tired of her and forced her to look for another hos- 
pitable roof. A change only came when, in 1870, she entered 
into partnership with Richard Kennedy, a young Irish lad, 
who did the practical work of healing while Mrs. Glover (for 
she had resumed this name) devoted her energies to teaching 
and writing. Her so-called textbook Science and Health did 
not appear until the year 1875, Mrs. Glover at that time being 
fifty-four years old. In 1877 she married a man of her own 
choice, Asa Gilbert Eddy, whose name she was to make famous. 
Her husband died only five years after, in 1882. From that 
date till her death in 1910, Calvin A. Frye became her closest 
associate in her ever-widening affairs, her man of all works, 
as Mrs. Eddy called him, her "steward, bookkeeper, secretary, 
and footman," as others have described him, so important in 
Mrs. Eddy's household that for some time all Mrs. Eddy's 

1 "In 1873 Mrs. Patterson applied for and obtained a divorce on the 
ground of desertion. The doctor did not contest the suit. His end wag 
melancholy. Evidently his experiences preyed upon his mind; he wandered 
aimlessly around for many years, and eventually lived the life of a hermit 
near Saco, Maine. There he died in 1896." Milmine: op. cit., in McClure't 
Magazine, Vol. XXVIII, p. 241. 



Modern Mind-Movements 19 

personal property was listed in his name. 1 In 1888, how- 
ever, a rival to Mrs. Eddy's favor was introduced into her 
household in the person of Dr. Ebenezer Johnson Foster, a man 
then forty-one years old, whom in that year Mrs. Eddy legally 
adopted as her foster son. Her own son, meanwhile, was 
living in the West, estranged from his mother, who had never 
cared for him, but had allowed him to be adopted by a neigh- 
boring woman and to accompany her westward. Dr. Foster- 
Eddy himself was practically, though not legally, disowned, in 
1897, when his foster mother exiled him from her presence. 2 

Among the works which Mrs. Eddy undertook and carried 
to a successful issue at an age when most people feel that their 
life's work is almost done, we may enumerate the following: 

In 1875 Mrs. Eddy published the first edition of Science and 
Health, a book which she kept on revising and practically 
rewriting many times over, up to near the end of her life. In 
the same year, being then fifty-four years old, she founded 
the first Christian Science organization. 

In 1878 she preached regularly in a Baptist church. 

In 1879 she founded the Church of Christ, Scientist, and had 
herself ordained the first pastor. 

In 1881 when sixty years old, she founded the Massachusetts 
Metaphysical College, of which she was the principal and, 
for most of the time, the entire faculty. She closed the 
College in 1889. 

In 1883 she founded and edited the Christian Science Journal, 
a monthly publication in the interest of Christian Science. 

In 1884 she taught a class in Chicago and in 1888 she attended 
the Chicago convention, where she achieved a most remark- 
able personal triumph. 

1 "From the day Calvin Frye entered the service of Mrs. Eddy, he lived 
in literal accordance with the suggestion of that passage in Science and 
Health (ed. 1906, p. 31), where Mrs. Eddy reminds us that Jesus acknowl- 
edged no family ties. . . . When his father died, Calvin went down to Law- 
rence to attend the funeral. On the way to the cemetery he stopped the 
carriage and boarded a street car in order to catch the next train back to 
Boston. By the time his sister Lydia died, Calvin had become so completely 
absorbed in his new life and duties that he did not acknowledge the notifi- 
cation of her death, did not go to her funeral, and did not respond to a 
request for a small amount of money to help defray the burial expenses." 
Milmine: op. cit., in McClure's Magazine, 1907, p. 575. 

2 Dr. Foster, a homeopathic physician before becoming a follower of Mrs. 
Eddy, was adopted shortly after a visit to Mrs. Eddy by her son, Mr. 
Glover. 



20 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

In 1889 she dissolved and reorganized her Church in Boston. 

In 1890 she founded the Christian Science Quarterly. 

In 1894 The Mother Church was erected and dedicated in her 



ho 



nor 



In 1895 she inaugurated the Concord Pilgrimages (1895-1904) 

when great crowds of Christian Scientists flocked to Concord 

to get a look at their beloved Leader. In the same year she 

published the Church Manual. 
In 1896 she published Miscellaneous Writings (1883-1896) 

and, in 1899, Retrospection and Introspection. 
In 1898 she taught her last class and founded the Christian 

Science Sentinel, a weekly publication. 
In 1906 the immense annex to the Mother Church in Boston waa 

dedicated. 
In 1908 at the age of eighty-seven, she founded the daily 

Christian Science Monitor. 2 

This eventful career was brought to a close on December 3, 
1910, when Mrs. Eddy died of pneumonia at the age of eighty- 
nine. The announcement of Mrs. Eddy's death was made 
simultaneously the following day, winch was Sunday, by Judge 
Clifford P. Smith, first reader of the Mother Church, and by 
Alfred Farlow, of the publication committee, in a statement 
to the press. Few of the congregation at the morning service 
knew that their leader and teacher had passed away. The 
service was as usual and the two readers, Judge Smith and 
Mrs. Leland T. Powers, read the sermon of the day God, the 
only Cause and Creator, with voices that were without emo- 
tion or had any suggestion of sadness. The service in every 
Christian Science Church is the same and closes with a hymn, 
the reading of the scientific statement of Being, and the bene- 
diction. The routine was strictly followed on this day until 
just before pronouncing the benediction. Judge Smith broke 
through the usual formula with the following announcement: 

1 An inscription over the front entrance reads: "The First Church of 
Christ, Scientist, erected Anno Domini 1894. A testimonial to our beloved 
teacher, the Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy, discoverer and founder of Christian 
Science; author of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures; president 
of the Massachusetts Metaphysical College, and the first pastor of this 
denomination." 

2 For further details in Mrs. Eddy's life consult Chapter XV, and for 
a complete list of her works with succinct description of contents, the 
Bibliography. 



Modern Mind-Movements 21 

"I shall now read part of a letter, written by our revered 
leader and reprinted on p. 135 of Miscellaneous Writings: 

" 'My Beloved Students : You may be looking to see me in 
my accustomed place with you, but this you must no longer 
expect. When I retired from the field of labor, it was a de- 
parture socially, publicly, and finally, from the routine of 
such material modes as society, and our societies demand. 
Rumors are rumors — nothing more. I am still with you on 
the field of battle, taking forward marches, broader and 
higher views, and with the hope that you will follow. . . . 

" 'AH our thoughts should be given to the absolute de- 
monstration of Christian Science. You can well afford to 
give me up, since you have in my last revised edition of Science 
and Health your teacher and guide.* x 

"Although these lines," said Judge Smith, "were written 
years ago, they are true today and will continue to be true. 
But it becomes my duty to announce that Mrs. Eddy passed 
from our sight last night at quarter before eleven o'clock, 
at her home on Chestnut Hill." 

Only those who sat through the service with the knowledge 
of the event of thirteen hours before, heard the benediction. 
The greater part of the congregation tried to realize what had 
happened and left their seats in a sort of dazed silence. Here 
and there was a little gathering and a few interchanges of sen- 
timent, but there were no words of sorrow, and although many 
a tear was shed, no one would acknowledge a loss of any sort, 
and the great organ pealed its recessional as joyously and 
triumphantly as ever. 2 



Mrs. Eddy's unusually and unexpectedly long life was 
marked in its latter half by a feverish activity and by marvelous 
business aptitudes; throughout, it was a career replete with 

1 These words were written by Mrs. Eddy to be read at the meeting of 
the Massachusetts Metaphysical College Association, June 3, 1891. 

2 This account is taken substantially from the Boston Evening Transcript 
of December 5, 1910. It is here reproduced at length, because it gives a 
correct account of the Christian Science church services, and of the per- 
sonal attitude assumed by many Christian Scientists. 



22 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

the most varied fortunes, lending itself well to the legendary 
embellishments with which Mrs. Eddy's followers, encouraged 
by her own example, have surrounded it. 1 Of her life it can 
truly be said that fact is stranger than fiction. How this 
woman, whose life for forty years, with but short intermissions, 
was a long succession of ailments that seemed to bring her 
more than once to death's door, came before the world with 
the claim of having been cured without doctor or drug ; how she 
passed the rest of her life, for nearly half a century, denying 
the reality of sin, sickness, death, and of matter itself; how 
she, an illiterate woman, who at the age of forty neither wrote 
nor spoke correct English, became the author of a book which is 
put by many on a level with the Sacred Scriptures themselves ; 
how, in spite of the fact that she repeatedly denied the existence 
of the supernatural, she persuaded hundreds of thousands that 
hers was a new and final revelation; how, though penniless at 
the age of fifty and living on the charity of others, she amassed 
before her death a fortune of considerably more than two 
million dollars ; how, after questioning the usefulness of church 
organizations and forcing her followers to give up their church 
membership, this remarkable woman founded a new Church 
with affiliations in every important center of the United States 
and in almost every country of the world ; how this was accom- 
plished when she had reached the ripe old age of nearly three 
score and ten ; how she surrounded herself with a loyal band of 
men and women, ever ready to carry out her every wish, no 
matter how great the sacrifices involved: all this is a story too 
long to be told in these pages, for details of which her biog- 
raphies must be consulted. 

It had been predicted that the death of Mrs. Eddy would 
spell the end of Christian Science. Time has given the lie to 
this prophecy. Legal contentions there are not a few ; 2 but 
despite these, if signs can be trusted, the religion is prosperous. 
It may be that Mrs. Eddy, by leaving the bulk of her fortune 

1 For proof of this assertion, cf. Miss Sibyl Wilbur: Life of Mary Baker 
Eddy (Boston, 1913). 

8 Consult chapt. XV for details. 



Modern Mind-Movements 23 

to her Church, materially strengthened its foundations ; x at 
the same time it is evident that her doctrines have such a hold 
on the imagination of her adherents that the Church is in no 
immediate danger of collapse. 

The progress of Christian Science is indicated by the fol- 
lowing figures. In 1879 about a score of persons under the 
presidency of Mrs. Eddy met together to found a religious 
organization to be known as the Church of Christ (Scientist). 
The charter members numbered but twenty-six. About ten 
years later (1890), this organization reported 221 churches 
with a membership of 8724; sixteen years later (1906) the 
United States Religious Census Report gave it a total mem- 
bership of 82,332 with 16,116 children in their Sunday schools, 
almost ten times as many as sixteen years before. Since then 
no official census has been taken, as Mrs. Eddy has ordered that 
"Christian Scientists shall not report for publication the num- 
ber of the members of the Mother Church nor that of the 
branch churches." 2 Dr. Snowden, however, on the basis of the 
lists of organizations regularly published in the Christian 
Science Journal, has reckoned that in December, 1919, there 
was a total of 1702 organizations, of which 1504 were in the 
United States, and 198 in foreign countries. These organiza- 
tions are divided as follows : 

Churches 

United States 840 

Other Countries 122 

Total 962 730 1702 

1 Mrs. Eddy's will and two codicils provided for all but about $250,000 
of her estate, conservatively valued at $2,250,000, going to the Christian 
Science Church. Each one of the four children of Mr. Glover was to receive 
$10,000. Mr. Frye was bequeathed $20,000 with the right to reside at 385 
Commonwealth Avenue as long as he lived; also $500 worth of Mrs. Eddy's 
personal belongings. One hundred thousand dollars was to be set aside for 
the teaching of indigent practitioners. 

2 Church Manual (89th ed.), Art. VIII, sect. 28: It is believed that the 
slackening rate of increase induced Mrs. Eddy to put this prohibition on 
her statute book. Cf. Carroll: The Religious Forces of the United States 
(revised 1896), pp. 96-98. At that time the association owned only seven 
church edifices. 



Societies 


Total 


664 


1504 


76 


198 



£4 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

In June, 1907, the Mother Church, according to the last 
report of the secretary, had 43,876 members. It must, however, 
be noted that owing to the peculiar organization of the Chris- 
tian Science Church, by far the larger number of these be- 
longed at the same time to some branch church. Figuring on 
an average membership of 100 for every church and of 25 for 
every society, we get a total of about 114,700 Christian Scien- 
tists at the end of 1919. As this number does not include the 
children, who are not enrolled as members, this figure must be 
doubled or tripled to obtain an idea of the number of people 
who come under Christian Science influences. 1 

Even though this falls far short of the millions which some 
people believe they number, and still far shorter of the estimate 
Mr. Clements ventured to make some years back, 2 yet, for a 
society that in its original form is hardly more than fifty 
years old, and in its reorganized form not much more than 
thirty, the numerical strength is quite remarkable. 

No less significant is the social standing of the average 
Christian Scientist. Whether it be that its appeal does not 
interest the lower classes, or that Christian Science is too ex- 
pensive a luxury to indulge in, the fact is that the Christian 
Science congregations are largely composed of the well-to-do, 
with a fair sprinkling of educated men among them. Here it 
may be a lawyer, or a judge, who makes himself the apostle of 
the new Creed and the defender of its founder ; there a physician 
or a clergyman gives up his profession to throw in his lot with 
the Christian Scientists. 3 On January 5 and 6, 1915, United 
States Senator Works in a lengthy, well-documented speech 
took up the defense of Christian Science before his colleagues in 
the Senate. 4 As far back as 1898 the Earl of Dunmore, a 

1 Snowden: The Truth about Christian Science (Philadelphia, 1920), p. 
221. Cf. Official U. S. Religious Census for 1916, Vol. I, p. 11. Wilder D. 
Quint in New England Magazine, 1909: The Growth of Christian Science, 
p. 317. 

a Mark Twain, op. cit., p. 72: "It is a reasonably safe guess that in 
America in 1920 there will be ten million Christian Scientists, and three 
millions in Great Britain; that in America in 1920 the Christian Scientists 
will be a political force, in 1930 politically formidable, and in 1940 the gov- 
erning power in the Republic — to remain "that, permanently." 

3 Cf. Milmine: op. cit., pp. 209 ff. 

4 Cf. Congressional Record, Vol. 52, Part I, pp. 1021-1057. 



Modem Mind-Movements 25 

peer of the Scottish realm, came with his wife to Boston to 
study Christian Science and both were received by Mrs. Eddy, 
who at that time resided at Concord, New Hampshire. Lady 
Dunmore was also present at the June Communion of the fol- 
lowing year. On this occasion her son, Lord Fincastle, is said 
to have come from India to join his mother in this service 
and to have returned immediately. Her daughter also came to 
America to attend the annual communion. 1 

Mrs. Eddy's success is thus explained by Miss Milmine: 

"Mrs. Eddy's philosophy makes a double appeal to hu- 
man nature, offering food both to our inherent craving for 
the mystical and to our desire to do well in a worldly way 
and teaching that these extremes are not incompatible in 
Science. Indeed, as one of the inducements offered to pur- 
chasers of the first edition of Science and Health, Mrs. Glover 
advertised it as a book that 'affords opportunity to acquire 
a profession by which you can accumulate a fortune,' and in 
the book itself she said that 'men of business have said this 
science was of great advantage from a secular point of view.' 
And in later and more prosperous days Mrs. Eddy has writ- 
ten in satisfied retrospect : 'In the early history of Christian 
Science among my thousands of students few were wealthy. 
Now, Christian Scientists are not indigent ; and their com- 
fortable fortunes are acquired by healing mankind morally, 
ph}'sically, and spiritually.' 

"Whatever may be the Christian Science theories regard- 
ing the nothingness of other forms of matter, the various 
forms of currency continue to appear very real to the spirit- 
ualized vision of its followers. Mrs. Eddy insists that her 
healers shall be well paid. She says, 'Christian Science 
demonstrates that the patient who pays what he is able to 
pay, is more apt to recover than he who withholds a slight 
equivalent for health.' 

"Worldly prosperity, indeed, plays an important part in 
the Christian Science religion today. Poverty is believed to 
be an error, like sin, sickness, and death; and Christian 
Scientists aim to make what they call their financial demon- 

1 Cf. Milmine: op. cit., p. 448. The annual communion service which 
formed an event in the earlier days of the Mother Church was later sup- 
pressed by Mrs. Eddy. 



26 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

stration early in their experience. A poor Christian Scien- 
tist is as much of an anomaly as a sick Christian Scientist." x 

What a contrast between this new religion which pretends 
to be Christian and that of the Son of Man who had not 
whereon to lay His head ! 

IV 

When Mrs. Eddy, assuming the tone of an inspired prophet, 
deliberately ignored and slurred Dr. Quimby, she roused the 
dormant energies of Quimby's admirers and friends. Unwit- 
tingly she became instrumental in gathering together into a 
movement what, without this incentive, would probably never 
have got beyond the stage of half-hearted and desultory at- 
tempts at healing in imitation of Quimby. The latter found 
valiant defenders in Mr. and Mrs. Julius A. Dresser, who, in 
the early sixties, had both been his patients. Mr. Dresser had 
worked under Quimby ; it had been his duty to explain the first 
principles of the new science to new comers and to usher them 
into the "Doctor's" presence. In this capacity he had made 
the acquaintance of Mrs. Patterson, the future founder of 
Christian Science. When Quimby died, Mrs. Patterson earn- 
estly entreated Mr. Dresser to continue Dr. Quimby's practice. 
Had he done so, Christian Science might never have been born. 
But Mr. Dresser's health was impaired; he and his wife both 
dreaded the publicity connected with such an undertaking; 
they had decided to try a change of climate and started for 
the West. Their departure left the field clear, and Mrs. Pat- 
terson hastened to occupy it. 

When Mr. Dresser returned from the West, he was surprised 

to learn of the growing fame and of the extravagant claims of 

his former friend, who had reassumed the name of her first 

husband. He now no longer hesitated: he took up mental 

healing as a means of livelihood and defended the title of his 

friend and benefactor Quimby to the honor of having invented 

this new system of healing. Mrs. Glover retorted, and thus 

was launched that famous Quimby controversy, out of which 

Mrs. Eddy emerged so ingloriously, and the details of which 

1 Milmine: op. cit., p. 209. Except when otherwise stated, the book, and 
not the magazine articles, are quoted. 



Modern Mind-Movements 27 

may be read in Miss Milmine's Life, in Horatio W. Dresser's 
History, and in Peabody's Masquerade. 

Mr. Dresser's championing of Dr. Quimby's claims bore 
fruit in opening the eyes of some who had been misled by Mrs. 
Eddy's assumption of superior knowledge. It cannot be said 
that, at that early date, anything like a concentrated opposi- 
tion took shape; nevertheless, forces that would have spent 
themselves, if left alone, began to gravitate around this sem- 
blance of an organized opposition. Many practitioners who 
might have religiously adhered to a divinely appointed guide, 
now boldly struck out for themselves on independent lines and 
created in various sections of the country various centers of 
mental healing. These are the raw material which in the course 
of time congregated into what is now known as the New 
Thought movement. Of this stage of development Dr. Horatio 
W. Dresser writes : 

"Passing by the beginnings of Christian Science (1875- 
1882) we come to a time when the idealistic interpretation 
of Quimby's theory, set on foot by the writings of Mr. Evans 
and Mrs. Eddy, had gained sufficient hold in Boston, so that 
readers and former students began to branch out for them- 
selves. The Mind-Cure or Boston Craze, as it was first called, 
gradually spread to other cities, assuming new forms with 
each new leader. Thus a former student of Christian Sci- 
ence established the new movement in Hartford, Connecticut, 
and from that center teachers went to New York, where a 
variation of the Mind-Cure became known as metaphysical 
healing. Gradually the movement spread to western cities, 
where it became known under yet other names, such as Practi- 
cal Christianity in Kansas City, and Divine Science in San 
Francisco and Denver. 

"After 1890 a new school of writers appeared, among 
them Henry Wood and R. W. Trine, who gave a larger mean- 
ing to the original term and endeavored to make of the 
Thought a comprehensive theory for the whole of life. A 
Church was established in Boston as early as 1886, and since 
that time many Sunday meetings have flourished for brief 
periods. Magazines also began to appear early and active 
propagandism began. A general convention was also held 



28 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

during that period, although it was many years before a 
national convention was undertaken. The first Metaphysical 
Club was organized in 1895. It was followed by similar clubs, 
centers and circles in various parts of the country. Pres- 
ently the diversity of books and magazines became such that it 
was difficult even for close students of the movement to keep 
the run of them. Out of this diversity has come the New 
Thought as known today." * 

We must briefly pass in review this ever widening circle of 
mental cults, In 1894 Mrs. Van-Anderson organized the 
Church of the Higher Life in Boston. The same year Miss 
Sarah J. Farmer established the Greenacre Conferences, a sum- 
mer camp which, though not exclusively devoted to New 
Thought, was largely instrumental in bringing persons of the 
same mind together, and continued to do so, until Miss Farmer 
espoused Bahaism and other vagaries not directly connected 
with New Thought. The same year also was organized at 
Boston the Procopeia, the first New Thought Society which, 
however, was short-lived and eventually merged into the Meta- 
physical Club organized about the same time. Of this club Mr. 
Dresser says : 

"This was the first permanent New Thought club and it 
set the standard for such societies elsewhere. It was the first 
mental-healing society to put its special interests on a large 
basis with a view to reaching the world. It was the beginning 
of the activities which grew in the course of time into a world- 
wide movement. It led the way for the establishment of cen- 
ters, circles, or other organizations with the same general 
interests in view, whatever the names attached to them. The 
fact that it came into existence was a sign that the mental- 
healing movement had passed out of its preliminary or ex- 
perimental stage and was assuming the general character- 
istics which it was to continue to possess. . . . Other at- 
tempts were made to develop a national movement. But it 
was the movement which began in Boston that eventually 
succeeded. Out of it grew the effort to form a permanent 
international organization." 2 

1 Dresser: Handbook of the New Thought (New York, 1917), p. 33 ff. 
'Dresser's History, p. 183. 



Modem Mind-Movements 29 

The first New Thought Convention, using that name, was 
held in Boston in 1899. Previous to this, Divine Science, that 
modified Christian Science, which had taken such firm roots in 
the Far West, had held annual conventions from 1894 to 1899 
(with the exception of the year 1898) in San Francisco (1894, 
1899), Chicago (1895), Kansas City (1896), and St. Louis 
(1897), which cities are still strong centers of the movement. 
In 1899, Boston, the home of Christian Science, began also to 
lead in New Thought. Up to then, the various independent 
organizations, scattered throughout the length and breadth of 
the land, almost invariably owed their existence directly or in- 
directly to Mrs. Eddy. Chicago had long since its contingent 
of mind-healers : there Mrs. Ursula Gestefeld drew upon herself 
the wrath of the Boston autocrat by publishing an explanation 
of Science and Health; there also appeared in 1891 Miss Yar- 
nall's Practical Healing for Mind and Body, and Anna W. 
Mills' Practical Metaphysics for Healing and Self -Culture. In 
San Francisco Mrs. Hopkins had taught in 1887 a class of 
250 people and had laid the foundation for the establishment 
of Christian Science Homes, now called Homes of Truth, in 
San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Oakland, San Jose, 
Sacramento, Berkeley and Sierra Madre in California, also at 
Victoria, British Columbia, and Walla Walla in Washington 
State. In Denver, Colorado, the psycho-therapeutic movement 
which is now in a flourishing condition there, was inaugurated 
and fostered by the pioneer work and teaching of Melinda E. 
Cramer, the author of Divine Science and Healing, 1907, and 
ably seconded by Fannie B. James, the author of Truth and 
Health, a book "lovingly dedicated to the World." Here also 
the Colorado College of Divine Science was incorporated in 
1898. "Satisfactory work in all the courses (primary, train- 
ing, theological and normal, each one covering a period of 
from two to four weeks) entitles the student to the College 
diploma, and this signifies that he is a fully equipped healer, 
minister and teacher." * 

*Cf. James: Truth and Health. Science of the Perfect Mind and the 
Law of its Demonstration— New Light upon Old Truths. The Textbook of 
the Colorado College of Divine Science (3d ed., Denver, Colo., 1905), p. 368. 
Gestefeld: A Statement of Christian Science (Chicago, 1888). 



30 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

In St. Louis the movement assumed the name of Practical 
Christianity, inaugurated a German branch and, since 1893, 
published a German periodical, entitled Das Wort. Cleveland 
saw the founding, b}^ the Rev. J. F. C. Grumbine, of the Order 
of the White Rose and also of the College of Divine Science and 
Realization. In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ; Washington, D. 
C, and other places the movement also soon obtained a sure 
footing. Mr. Sabin was a pioneer in Reformed Christian 
Science in Washington, D. C, and Mr. Mason in Brooklyn,. 
New York. 1 Thus the way was prepared for the attempt to 
group these several bodies under one general organization. 

The first New Thought convention properly so-called gave 
birth to the International Metaphysical League ; this was trans- 
formed in 1905 into the World New Thought Federation, and, 
in 1908, into the National New Thought Alliance, which, in 
name, if not yet in fact, became in 1914 again international. 
Since this its final reorganization, so-called international con- 
gresses have been held in San Francisco, St. Louis, Boston, 
Kansas City, and in Washington, D. C, which has now become 
the headquarters for the movement. 

The League, Federation, or Alliance has no easy time try- 
ing to keep so many divergent elements harmoniously united 
in the one association. However, the work of organization 
seems to be now fairly under way and to work satisfactorily. 
New Thought never excited quite the same amount of opposi- 
tion as Christian Science, because it does not claim so much 
for itself as its rival. It is likely that its growth will continue 
unchecked for many years to come. Being less compact, it is 
more elastic and also more elusive than Christian Science. 
Criticism will, therefore, naturally center on the latter, and 
touch the former indirectly. 

A word or two on kindred subjects and studies will help 
to give to this essay its proper orientation. There is nowadays 
no dearth of literature on these topics. 

"In recent years," writes Dr. William Sadler, "we have 
been literally deluged with literature on suggestion, mental 
healing, hypnotism, psychotherapy, psychic fads, and various 
1 Dresser's History, pp. 232-253, 196 ff. 



Modern Mind-Movements SI 

healing 'isms,' not to mention New Thought, Christian Sci- 
ence, and other systems of religious healing. It would seem 
as if doctor, preacher and layman were now vying with one 
another in an effort to atone for their past indifference to, 
and neglect of, the important subjects mental healing and 
moral therapeutics." 1 

It is perhaps too much to say that the mind of the scientific 
world has completely reversed itself on the score of magnetic 
or hypnotic healing; it has at least divested itself of that su- 
preme contempt with which it used to treat these matters. 
Hypnotic facts have acquired rights of citizenship in scientific 
circles. Credit for this changed attitude is due in no small 
measure to the investigations of two rival camps, the Paris and 
the Nancy school of hypnotism with their respective leaders 
Charcot and Bernheim. As their conclusions will have no small 
bearing on our subject, it may be as well to indicate here in a 
general way that the Paris school has conceded fully and ex- 
plicitly that the Nancy school has found the proper explanation 
for the common phenomena which they both investigated. 

Charcot, the head of the Paris school, had looked upon 
hypnosis as a pathological state, and upon hypnotic influence 
as a real transference of vital powers from the operator to the 
subject. Bernheim, the founder of the Nancy school, on the 
contrary, proved successfully that hypnosis was not a patho- 
logical condition, and that the real cause of its phenomena 
was not a sort of electric current of vital powers passing from 
operator to subject, but was due to the power of suggestion, 
which would direct the subject's subliminal mind to perform un- 
consciously certain definite acts. 2 

It is from this latter hypothesis that the two quasi-scientific 
mental cures, inaugurated by Dubois and Freud, start. Dr. 
Paul Dubois of Bern, Switzerland, who has been trained in the 
Nancy school, discards hypnotism altogether and confines him- 
self to the treatment by suggestion in the waking state. His 
plan consists in reeducating intellectually and morally nervous 

1 Sadler: The Physiology of Faith and Fear (Chicago, 1912), Preface, p. 
vii. 

a Cf. Bernheim: La Suggestion (Nancy, 1884); Pierre Janet: Les Medi- 
cations Psychologiques (Paris, 1919), Vol. I, pp. 159-166. 



3% Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

patients that are brought to him. There is little essential dif- 
ference between his practice and that of our mind-healers, 
though there is no parity whatever between his theories and 
theirs. 1 The same thing may be said concerning the much- 
talked-about psycho-analytical method of the recently defunct 
Viennese professor Freud. This latter insisted especially on 
the danger of suppressed emotions and disagreeable reminis- 
cences to the health of the individual. Freud has pushed his 
system to extremes by finding for all such suppressed fears 
and hidden impulses a sexual basis. This, however, need not be 
considered essential to his system. 2 

Mental or faith-healing, since its apparent success in Chris- 
tian Science, strongly appeals to certain Protestant communi- 
ties. The question has been seriously asked whether Protestant- 
ism must adopt Christian Science or at least Christian Science 
healing. 3 Some churches have not waited for this question to 
be broached. Mr. J. M. Hickson, a lay member of the Church 
of England, has for years held healing services in England, 
claiming that the gift of healing is essential to the Christian 
Church. Before the Pan-Anglican Congress in 1908 he stated 
"that we should always keep clearly before us the fact that 
there is only One Healer, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who is 
the Truth, the Way and the Life of spiritual healing" ; that 
"because Christ is the Healer, there is no limitation to His 
work, except that of man's receptiveness, and that His healing 
is not only for the body, but also for the mind and spirit." 4 
Mr. Hickson has lately toured the United States, drawing 
everywhere large crowds to his healing services. His example 
was immediately followed by a host of other advocates of 
divine healing. 

1 Dubois : The Influence of the Mind over the Body, translated by L. B. 
Gallatin from 5th French edition (New York, 1906) ; The Psychic Treat- 
ment of Nervous Disorders, translated by Jelliffe and White (New York, 
1906). 

2 Cf. "Wolfram: Gegen Psycho-Analyse (Leipzig, 1918); Jones, J.: Psy- 
cho-Analysis (1915) ; Maeder in L'Annee Psychologique, Vol. XVIII (1912), 
"Sur le Mouvement Psycho-Analytique." 

3 Hegeman, in North American Revieic, December, 1913, p. 823, and July, 
1914, p. 122. 

4 Report, Vol. Ill, sect. B., p. 20. Cf. Paget: Faith and Works of Chris- 
tian Science (New York, 1909), pp. 187 ff. 



Modem Mind-Movements 33 

Even more important than the work of Mr. Hickson in 
England is that inaugurated in 1906, by Dr. Elwood Worces- 
ter in the Emmanuel Church, Boston, Massachusetts. It differs 
from other movements in this, that it limits itself to nervous 
diseases and requires the cooperation of the physicians. The 
authors of this innovation insist that their movement "bears no 
relation to Christian Science, either by way of protest or of 
imitation." "We have taken our stand," they declare, "fairly 
and squarely on the religion of Christ, as that religion is re- 
vealed in the New Testament, and as it is interpreted by modern 
scholarship, and we have combined with us the power of genuine 
science." * In spite of these emphatic statements, few, I think, 
would deny that the Emmanuel, and similar, movements owe 
indirectly their existence to the success and the danger of 
Christian Science. 

This rapid survey shows only imperfectly the importance 
which attaches nowadays to the modern mind-movements, in 
general, and to Christian Science, in particular. Ridicule has 
been tried and has been found wanting. In spite of sarcasm 
and invective, Christian Science has steadily grown. Nor must 
we neglect its rival movements which become daily of greater 
importance. Men of note, like the late Professor William James 
or the late Hugo Miinsterberg, both of Harvard University, 
or like James H. Leuba of Bryn Mawr College, who have in- 
vestigated these movements, do not speak slightingly of them. 
Hardly any subject is more frequently alluded to in our days 
in public speech or print. In 1906 Mgr. Benson in a conference 
on Christian Science could still give the following advice: 

"You will forgive me perhaps, if I end with two or three 
recommendations to any who have to deal with persons suf- 
fering from this distressing form of thought. First, I am 
sure that we must keep our tempers, and secondly, our sense 
of humor. If it is true that Protestantism rises in any degree 
from the absence of this latter virtue, I am certain that 
Christian Science, its latest development, rises almost entirely 
from it. I do not say that no 'scientist' possesses a grain 

*Cf. Worcester-McComb-Coriat : Religion and Medicine (New York, 
1908), p. 13; also Worcester-McComb : The Christian Religion as a Healing 
Power (New York, 1909). 



34 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

of humor, but that such is bound to keep it in a locked cup- 
board when he treats of his religion. Let us therefore bring 
to bear this genial solvent of laughter and see whether Chris- 
tian Science is as impervious to it as to so many other facts 
of the world in which we live." ' 

After all that precedes, it must be apparent that ridicule 
can no longer be the main weapon that we must wield against 
this new philosophy and new religion. It becomes necessary 
that we should try to see it as the Christian Scientist sees it, 
and to discover in it that grain of truth which renders it ac- 
ceptable to so many. At the same time we must keep in view 
the danger against revealed religion which all modern mind- 
movements contain, at least implicitly. 

1 Benson, R. H.: A Book of Essays; essay on "Christian Science," p. 17. 



CHAPTER III 

THE TRUE ORIGIN OP CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 

Christian Science, alone among all modern mind-cults, lays 
claim to an extraordinary, not to say supernatural, origin. 
It assumes the mask of a new religious revelation; it claims 
to be the revival of original Christianity, the result of a divine 
inspiration. This claim has probably been the most powerful 
contributing cause to its success. Had Mrs. Eddy been con- 
tent with an appeal to experience and science, she would have 
remained the butt of a good-natured and fun-loving public ; but 
when she began to speak as one having authority, she gathered 
around herself a handful of followers who rapidly increased in 
number. Thus was laid the foundation of that organization 
whose rapid progress and widespread ramifications astonish us 
today. 

Nothing seems to be quite as easy as to launch a new re- 
ligion. Garb any idea, be it ever so fantastic, in the mantle 
of religion and it is assured of a following. Men may revile 
religion, even resent its intrusion, and chafe under its restraints, 
but quite indifferent to it they seldom are. Deep down in their 
hearts, often unacknowledged, and oftener unappreciated, there 
slumbers that mysterious impulse to worship which craves to 
be satisfied. At the same time the average man is very human : 
actual needs and wants take up by far the largest share of 
his thoughts and aspirations. To possess and enjoy the good 
things of life, to increase his worldly prestige and influence, 
to get beyond the range of want, this, it would almost seem, is 
the sole goal of his desires. It is only religion that imposes 
restraints on these his material pursuits. St. Paul's classical 
description of the interior struggle between sin and the soul, 
with the latter often worsted in the conflict, remains universally 
true. Now if, by any possibility, the interests of religion can 
be made to square with those of nature, if the wide gulf which 

35 



36 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

is commonly supposed to exist between religion and world- 
liness can be shown to be nothing but an illusion, and if to be 
religious-minded means to be worldly-prosperous, this recon- 
ciliation of the two men in us must greatly attract such as 
formerly groaned under their incompatibility. Mrs. Eddy's 
religion offers such a combination. 

Mrs. Eddy may never have analyzed the elements of her 
success. She cannot have foreseen and foreordained all that she 
accomplished. To let now the light of later developments play 
on the origin of her institutions and to explain this origin 
in the light of subsequent history is to misread the trend of 
events. Mrs. Eddy had no wide visions, no definite and pre- 
arranged plan. If she succeeded, it was not that she unflinch- 
ingly pursued a set goal, to be reached through a series of im- 
portant steps, but because, her vision being limited, she bent 
her heart and soul on an immediate goal, which, when reached, 
served as a stepping stone to further projects. Oftentimes she 
would follow rather than lead ; she would swim with the current ; 
she would adapt herself to that daily conflict which was so 
characteristic of her active life. When necessary, she would 
retrace her steps, and, when a new opportunity opened, she 
would advance with renewed zest. The precise form that Chris- 
tian Science has taken was largely determined by circumstances. 

But back of all her scheming lay the fundamental conceit 
that she, Mrs. Eddy, had rediscovered primitive Christianity; 
that hers was a mission parallel to that of Christ and of the 
prophets of old; that her message contained a new, a most 
perfect revelation graciously granted by God to the people of 
the present age. 

"In the year 1866," she writes, "I discovered the Christ 
Science, or divine laws of Life, and named it Christian Sci- 
ence. God had been graciously fitting me during many years 
for the reception of a final revelation of the absolute divine 
Principle of scientific being and healing. This apodictical 
Principle points to the revelation of Immanuel, 'God with 
us,' the sovereign ever-presence delivering the children of 
men from every ill that flesh is heir to." * 
1 Eddy: Science and Health (351 ed.), p. 107. 



The True Origin of Christian Science 37 

Christian Science is deeply rooted in Mrs. Eddy's per- 
sonal experiences. Her own personality occupies in her work 
almost as great a prominence as that of Christ in the estab- 
lishment of Christianity. Mrs. Eddy copied well, and if at 
times she overshot the mark, she always had enough practical 
sense to explain away, before it could do any lasting harm, 
whatever was too offensive to her friendly critics. Mrs. Eddy, 
of set purpose, surrounded her life with a supernatural sheen. 
Under her pen the most trivial circumstances took on a brilliant 
hue. New incidents were invented to increase the glory of 
"the discoverer and founder of Christian Science." Every pre- 
caution was taken that her name should not be forgotten, or 
obscured. This process of self-glorification, which went on 
merrily whenever feasible, took an upward jump with the found- 
ing of the Journal of Christian Science in 1883, and reached a 
climax, in 1889, with the publication of that fairy-tale auto- 
biography, entitled Retrospection and Introspection, and of 
that presumptuous production, in 1893, known as Christ and 
Christmas, at which even Christian Scientists were scandalized 
to such a degree that Mrs. Eddy temporarily suppressed it. 1 
To come to some detailed illustrations of these statements, 
let us begin at the beginning and learn something of Mrs. 
Eddy's entrance into this world. In the days of her destitu- 
tion, before success had smiled on her, Mrs. Eddy related how 
she had been born into the world an unwelcome child, and how 
every man's hand had been against her. But the wheel of 
fortune turned, and with it also the version of her birth. Now 
the legend went that Mrs. Baker, her mother, had "felt as if 
all the vital forces of the world had united in her, and she 
knew that she was to bring forth a prodigy." 2 

1 "In 1893 Mrs. Eddy published Christ and Christmas, an illustrated 
poem, which she afterwards temporarily suppressed, because the pictures 
were displeasing to many people. One picture represents Jesus Christ stand- 
ing beside a big, black, upholstered coffin, raising to life an emaciated 
woman. Another represents a woman, strangely like Mrs. Eddy's author- 
ized photographs in appearance, standing at a bedside and raising a pros- 
trate form while a great star burns above her head. In another, Christ is 
represented as hand in hand with a woman who bears a tablet, inscribed 
Christian Science. Mrs. Eddy wrote the text of this grim gift-book, and a 
fly-leaf accredits the pictures to Mary Baker G. Eddy and James F. Gil- 
man, artists." Milmine: op. cit., p. 418. 

2 Ibid., p. 415. 



58 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

Mary Baker, the future Mrs. Eddy, is pictured by eye- 
witnesses as a neurotic child, endowed with an ugly, selfish, 
domineering and unmanageable temper, yet capable of the 
most winning ways and manners. Constitutionally and tem- 
peramentally unfit for any protracted work, seeing that she was 
subject to frequent fainting spells that threatened her life 
more than once, she attended school rarely and received but 
the scantiest common school education. This little creditable 
fact is thus transformed into something quite different by Mrs. 
Eddy who writes late in life: 

"My father was taught to believe that my brain was too 
large for my body and so kept me much out of school, but 
I gained book knowledge with far less labor than is usually 
requisite. At ten years of age I was as familiar with Lind- 
ley Murray's Grammar as with the Westminster Catechism; 
and the latter I had to repeat every Sunday. My favorite 
studies were Natural Philosophy, Logic, and Moral Science. 
From my brother Albert I received lessons in the ancient 
tongues, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin." 

Fortunately for this precocious child, who might later 
on have been called upon to give proof of this vast activity and 
learning, all her knowledge suddenly vanished. 

"After my discovery of Christian Science, most of the 
knowledge I had gleaned from schoolbooks vanished like a 
dream. Learning was so illumined that grammar was 
eclipsed. Etymology was divine history, voicing the idea of 
God in man's origin and signification. Syntax was spiritual 
order and unity. Prosody, the song of angels, and no earthly 
or inglorious theme." 1 

With a similar disregard of truth Mrs. Eddy writes of her 
earliest religious experiences : 

"From my very childhood I was impelled by a hunger and 
thirst after divine things — a desire for something higher and 

1 Cf . Milniine: op. tit., p. 18. "Mrs. Eddy's schoolmates are not able to 
reconcile her story with their own recollections. They declare frankly that 
they do not believe Albert Baker taught her Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. He 
entered college, when Mary was nine, and left home when she was 
thirteen. . . . They insist that Mary's education was finished when she 
reached long division in the district school." 



The True Origin of Christian Science 39 

better than matter, and apart from it — to seek diligently for 
the knowledge of God as the one great and ever-present relief 
from human woe. The first spontaneous motion of Truth 
and Love acting through Christian Science on my roused 
consciousness banished at once and forever the fundamental 
error of faith in things material ; for this trust is the unseen 
sin, the unknown foe, the heart's untamed desire which break- 
eth the divine commandments." x 

Quite different is the picture drawn for us by Miss Milmine. 

"It was an age," she writes, "when languishing manners 
were fashionable. As a little girl even, Mary Baker adopted 
and exaggerated that pose. Her behavior was mincing and 
artificial, and by contrast it stood out in that rather rough 
and primitive community. Strong in the memory of the old 
inhabitants is her appearance at Church. She hardly ever 
entered until the rest of the congregation were seated. Then 
she tripped in, dressed a little conspicuousLy, but always in 
taste — a picture of fashionable beauty which made strangers 
and visitors stare. These baits lured the village boys ; and at 
church festivals all the young farmers were at her feet." 2 

True to her purpose of giving to her life the appearance 
of a special divine protection, Mrs. Eddy relates two other 
incidents, calculated to remind us of the Biblical accounts of 
Samuel's vocation, on the one hand, and of the twelve-year-old 
child Jesus, on the other. Like the little Samuel, she fre- 
quently heard (so Mrs. Eddy tells us) a voice distinctly call- 
ing her. Her mother, at last, instructed her to reply in the 
words of Samuel, "Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth." 
"When the call came again," Mrs. Eddy continued, "I did 
answer in the words of Samuel ; but never again to the material 
senses was that mysterious call repeated." 3 

So again like the child Jesus who, at the age of twelve, sat 

among the doctors "hearing them and asking them questions," 

Mary Baker, at the age of twelve, when (according to her own 

account) she was admitted to the Tilton Congregation Church, 

had her dispute, and this with her pastor, "an old-school ex- 

1 Retrospection, p. 37. 

a Milmine, op. cit., McClure's Magazine, Vol. XXVIII. (January, 190T), 
p. 235. 
* Retrospection, p. 10. 



40 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

pounder of the strictest Presbyterian doctrines," who was 
"apparently as eager to have unbelievers in these dogmas lost, 
as he was to have elect believers converted." The subject 
of the discussion was that abstruse doctrine of "Unconditional 
Election or Predestination" which has tried the intellectual 
acumen of more than one staid and learned divine. "So per- 
turbed was I," Mrs. Eddy tells us, "by the thoughts aroused 
by this erroneous doctrine that the family doctor was sum- 
moned and pronounced me stricken with fever." Mary's mother 
wisely induced her to pray, whereupon "a soft glow of in- 
effable joy came over her," and "the horrible decree of Pre- 
destination" forever lost its hold on her. But she still had to 
stand the test of a rigid examination prior to her admission 
into the Church and, of course, spoke so earnestly "that even 
the oldest Church members wept," and even the good clergy- 
man's heart melted, and he received her into their communion, 
and her protest with her. 1 

These narratives must be read in the light of the following 
facts: (1) Mary Baker was seventeen, not twelve, years old 
when she joined the Church at Tilton, as the authentic records 
of the Church show; (2) the unsupported claim of hearing 
voices and of disputing the official Calvinistic teaching of his 
pastor on exactly the same doctrine at exactly the same age 
was made shortly before Mrs. Eddy wrote by one of her con- 
temporaries, a spiritist and a quack, the notorious Andrew 
Jackson Davis, the supposed author of The Magic Staff (1826- 
1910). 2 

Mrs. Eddy by thus ennobling her childhood tried to render 
more credible her claim of a divine origin for her textbook. 
These embellishments of her earlier life, however, were an 
afterthought. So little certain was Mrs. Eddy as to the date 
when this revelation was vouchsafed her, that she has given 
at various times various dates. If the year 1866 finally tri- 
umphed it was because it had over others certain advantages 
which rendered it more suitable both for defense and offense. 
For Quimby was dead at that time, and her fall on a slippery 

*Eddy; Retrospection, pp. 12-15. 
a Cf. Podmore: op. cit., p. 221. 



The True Origin of Christian Science 41 

sidewalk afforded a spectacular setting for this occasion. Un- 
fortunately for Mrs. Eddy, it was impossible to expunge her 
earlier printed statements which give the same honor to three 
other years, 1844, 1853, and 1864 respectively. 

In the first edition of Science and Health (1875) this dis- 
covery is placed in the year 1864: "We made our first dis- 
covery that Science mentally applied would heal the sick in 
1864 and since then have tested it on ourselves and hundreds 
of others and never found it to fail to prove the statement 
herein made of it." Eight years later she said in a letter to the 
Boston Post: "We made our first experiments in mental heal- 
ing about 1853 when we were convinced that mind had a science 
which, if understood, would heal all disease." Finally, in 1887 
she wrote in the Christian Science Journal: "As long ago as 
1844 I was convinced that mortal mind produced all disease, 
and that the various medical systems were in no proper sense 
scientific. In 1862 when I first visited Mr. Quimby, I was 
proclaiming to druggists, spiritualists and mesmerists that 
science must govern all healing." x 

From 1866 on, the history of this "revelation" and "dis- 
covery" is easy to follow. Mr. Quimby had died early in that 
year (January 16). Two weeks later occurred, at Lynn, 
Massachusetts, that fall from which Mrs. Eddy dates her dis- 
covery. On that occasion, to quote her own words, she suf- 
fered "an injury that neither medicine nor surgery could reach." 
Her "immediate recovery" from the effects of that injury was 
"the falling apple" that led her "to the discovery how to be 
well herself, and how to make others so." 2 Mrs. Eddy's narra- 
tive places this accident, in itself real and serious enough, in 
a false light. She did not recover immediately, but was under 
the physician's care from February 1 to February 13. Nor 
did the doctor pronounce her case hopeless, as is witnessed to 
by the following affidavit, based on his written notes : 

"When I left her (Mrs. Patterson) on the thirteenth of 
February, she seemed to have recovered from the disturbance 
caused by the accident, and to be practically in her normal 

1 Milmine : op. cit., p. 77. 
* Retrospection, p. 28. 



42 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

condition. I did not at any time declare, or believe, that 
there was no hope for Mrs. Patterson's recovery, or that she 
was in a critical condition, and did not at any time say, or 
believe, that she had but three, or any other limited, number 
of days to live. Mrs. Patterson did not suggest, or say, or 
pretend, or in any way whatever, intimate, that, on the third 
or any other day of her said illness, she had miraculously 
recovered or been healed, or that, discovering or perceiving 
the truth of the power employed by Christ to heal the sick, 
she had, by it, been restored to health." * 

Two weeks after the accident Mrs. Eddy herself wrote to 
her friend Mr. J. A. Dresser : 

"Two weeks ago I fell on the sidewalk and struck my back 
on the ice and was taken up for dead, came to consciousness 
amid a storm of vapors from cologne, chloroform, ether, cam- 
phor, etc., but to find myself the helpless cripple I was be- 
fore I saw Dr. Quimby. The physician attending said I had 
taken the last step I ever should, but in two days I got out 
of my bed alone and will walk ; but yet I confess I am fright- 
ened, and out of that nervous heat my friends are forming, 
spite of me, the terrible spinal affection from which I have suf- 
fered so long and hopelessl}'. . . . Now, can't you help me? I 
believe you can. I write this with this feeling: I think that 
I could help another in my condition if they had not placed 
their intelligence in matter. This I have not done, and yet 
I am slowly failing. Won't you write me if you will under- 
take for me if I can get to you?" 2 

At the time this letter was written, Mrs. Patterson still 
was leaning for relief on Mr. Julius Dresser as the probable 
successor of Dr. Quimby. Her hopes lay in Quimby's system. 
Just to induce Mr. Dresser not to abandon her in her distress, 
she suggests: "I think that I could help another in my con- 
dition, if they had not placed their intelligence in matter." 
There is in all this no sign of a new discovery, still less any 
indication of a new revelation. None the less, it is quite prob- 

*Cf. Milmine: op.cit., p. 87. 

'Ibid., p. 85. It must be remembered that at this time Quimby was dead, 
and Mrs. Eddy looked upon Mr. Dresser as his logical successor. 



The True Origin of Christian Science 43 

able that, during the course of this year, Mrs. Eddy acquires 
a certain independence of action, forced upon her by the utter 
wretchedness of her life. Her father is dead; her husband 
deserts her ; her sister, Mrs. Tilton, who has frequently nursed 
her with a mother's care, closes forever her door against her. 
Her lot is thrown in with comparative strangers, on whose 
charitableness she largely depends, and, as her only assets, she 
possesses what she knows of Dr. Quimby's art of healing. 1 

And during all these years (1866-1870), the memory of 
which Mrs. Eddy in the days of her prosperity wished to see 
blotted out, she never attributed the invention of the new way 
of healing to herself. Quimby remained the source of her in- 
spiration as well as the topic of her conversation. She taught 
from his manuscript and she practiced his method wherever she 
went. Ten times during these few years Mrs. Eddy changed 
her residence. She resided successively at Lynn, Swampscott, 
East Stoughton, Taunton, Amesbury, Stoughton, and again at 
Amesbury. From her first residence she was evicted, ostensibly 
because she could not pay the rental of $1.50 a week, but in 
reality because her presence was no longer wanted. She stopped 
but a short time at the next two places ; at her fourth change 
of residence she met with a kindly reception from the gentle 
spiritualist Mrs. Wheeler, but this kindness she repaid before 
long with the most insulting and abusive language and con- 
duct. 1 

Her next home she left to j oin the Crafts at East Stoughton 
for the purpose of teaching Mr. Crafts, a shoe worker, the 

1H In the fall of 1865 Mark Baker, Mrs. Patterson's father, died, and 
about the same time her sister, Mrs. Tilton, closed her door forever against 
Mrs. Patterson. Her only child, George Glover, at that time a young man, 
she had sent away in his childhood. Mrs. Patterson was, therefore, for 
the first time in her life, practically alone in the world, and largely depend- 
ent upon herself for support. Untrained in any kind of paid work, she 
fell back upon the favors of her friends or chance acquaintances, living 
precariously upon their bounty, and obliged to go from house to house, as 
one family after another wearied of her." Milmine: op. cit., p. 108. 

1 Cf . Milmine, op. cit., pp. 108-131. "Mrs. Patterson was soon after this 
requested to leave the Wheeler house and did so. Mrs. Wheeler received 
nothing in payment for Mrs. Patterson's board. When Mrs. Wheeler asked 
Mrs. Patterson for a settlement, Mrs. Patterson replied to the effect that 
she had 'treated' a wounded finger for Mr. Wheeler and that this service 
was equivalent to what she had received from Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler in 
board, lodging, etc." (p. 110). 



44 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

science of mental healing. It was not long before she tried to 
induce Mr. Crafts to obtain a divorce from his wife, and, as 
this attempt failed, she had, of course, to leave. From her next 
home she had literally to be ejected, as she refused to comply 
with the command to go. 1 After that she enjoyed the hos- 
pitality of the Wentworths in Stoughton for about two years. 
As in the case of Mr. Crafts, so here she would have liked to 
break up the family circle, this time by inducing Mrs. Went- 
worth to leave husband and family in order to practice with her 
"the Quimby treatment." Ordered to leave, she chose for her 
departure a day when everybody was absent, and when the 
members of the family returned they were shocked to find the 
contents of the room she had occupied maliciously damaged. 2 
It is to this period of strife and stress that dates the very 
natural origin of the book which has been accepted with so 
much reverence by an overcredulous multitude. Up to then, 
Mrs. Eddy had used in her teaching and practice only the copy 
she had made from Quimby's Manuscript. In Stoughton Mrs. 
Eddy wrote a preface to it, signed Mary M. Glover, and in- 
troduced in it slight changes with a few additions. This preface 
was later on incorporated in the text, and the original title page 
reading Extracts from P. P. Quimby's Writings was omitted. 
Thus transformed, the manuscript was named The Science of 
Man, or, The Principle which Controls Matter. This produc- 
tion was copyright in 1872, but was not published until 1876, 
under the title The Science of Man, by Which the Sick arc 
Healed, Embracing Questions and Answers in Moral Science 
arranged for the Learner by Mrs. Mary Baker Glover. Grad- 

1 Milmine, op. cit., p. 117. Mary Ellis Bartlett testified: "My father com- 
manded Mrs. Glover to leave, and when she steadfastly refused to go, he 
had her trunk dragged from her room and set it outside the door, and when 
she was outside, he closed the door and locked it. I have often heard my 
father describe this event in detail, and I have heard him say that he had 
never expected in his whole life to be obliged to put a woman into the 
street." 

2 Ibid., p. 124. "We found every breadth of matting slashed up through 
the middle apparently with some sharp instrument. We also found 
the feather bed all cut to pieces. We opened the door of a closet. 
On the floor was a pile of newspapers almost entirely consumed. On top 
of these papers was a shovelful of dead coals. These had evidently been 
left by the last occupant. The only reasons that they had not set the 
house on fire evidently were because the closet door had been shut, and the 
air of the closet was so dead." (Affidavit by H. T. Wentworth.) 



The True Origin of Christian Science 45 

ually two other treatises were written, entitled respectively 
Scientific Treatise on Mortality as taught by Mrs. M. B. Glover 
and Soul's Inquiries of Man. "At first, however, Mrs. Glover 
gave Quimby credit for the authorship of the three manuscripts, 
even for the two which seem to have been partly her own com- 
position." *■ An important change was introduced in the spring 
of 1872 when as a result of her break with Richard Kennedy, 
she discontinued manipulation, which Quimby, without putting 
any stock in it, had tolerated. She ever afterwards denounced 
it as the sign and badge of mesmerism. Science and Health 
itself came from the press in 1876. The history of this book 
includes, therefore, 

"1. The writing of a signed preface and the amending of 
the original Quimby manuscript. 

"2. The incorporating of this preface in the text. 

"3. The composition of a second manuscript, partly her 
own, from which she was able to teach successfully. 

"4. The discontinuation of manipulation in treatment. 

"5. The belief, fostered by her students, that her interpre- 
tation of the Quimby manuscript was far beyond the 
manuscript itself in scope and understanding. 

"6. The writing of the book Science and Health, begun in 
the later sixties and finished in 1875, in which Mrs. 
Glover undoubtedly added much extraneous matter to 
Quimbyism and developed self-confidence by presenting 
ideas of her own." 2 

This book, which Mrs. Eddy in her autobiography styles 
The Precious Volume, was, therefore, in the making from the 
year 1866, when Mrs. Eddy claims the great discovery to have 
taken place, till 1875, when the book was published at the 
expense of two students who were found willing to advance the 
money for its publication. 3 During all these years Mrs. Eddy 
was continually engaged in writing and rewriting what she 

1 Milmine: op. cit., p. 163. 

2 Ibid., p. 166. 

3 "Mr. Barry and Miss Newhall lost over fifteen hundred dollars on the 
edition, and Mr. Spofford paid out five hundred dollars of his own money 
for advertising and personal expenses, besides giving his time for several 
months. Mrs. Eddy made no effort to reimburse them." Milmine, in 
McClure's Magazine, Vol. XXIX, p. 342. 



46 



Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 



sometimes called her Bible, and yet, "even after her eight years' 
struggle with her copy, the book as printed in 1875 is hardly 
more than a tangle of words and theories, fault}' in grammar 
and construction, and singularly vague and contradictory in its 
statements." x It contained eight chapters winch in the course 
of its many revisions increased to eighteen. To show the meta- 
morphosis which this singular book "of revelations" underwent, 
I here reproduce in parallel columns the table of contents of the 
first and of a later edition, the numbers in brackets being in- 
serted to facilitate comparison. 





First Edition 




Later Editions 


1. 


Natural Science (6) 


1. 


Prayer (5) 


2. 


Imposition and Demon- 


2. 


Atonement and Eucha- 




stration (4 and 5) 




rist (5) 


3. 


Spirit and Matter (10) 


3. 


Marriage (6) 


4. 


Creation (9) 


4. 


Christian Science and 


5. 


Prayer and Atonement (1 




Spiritualism 




and 2) 


5. 


Animal Magnetism 


6. 


Marriage (3) 


6. 


Science, Theology, Medi- 


7. 


Physiology (7) 




cine (1) 


8. 


Healing the Sick (12) 


7. 


Physiology (7) 






8. 


Footsteps of Truth 






9. 


Creation (4) 






10. 


Science of Being (3) 






11. 


Some Objections An- 
swered 






12. 


Christian Science Prac- 
tice (8) 






13. 


Teaching Christian Sci- 
ence 






14. 


Recapitulation 






KEY TO THE SCRIPTURES 






15. 


Genesis 






16. 


The Apocalypse 






17. 


Glossary 



18. Fruitage 
If we are asked what the relations are between Mrs. Eddy's 
'textbook" and Quimby's essays, we can state in fairness that 
1 Milmine: op. cit., p. 178. 



The True Origin of Christian Science 47 

Mrs. Eddy's work is her own, though its basic ideas, its inspira- 
tion and some of its phrases are undoubtedly borrowed from 
Quimby. What the famous Quimby controversy has brought 
to light is not that there is nothing original in Mrs. Eddy's 
work, but that there is nothing essentially new in her system, 
nothing that might be called her discovery (except perhaps her 
concept of malicious animal magnetism), nothing that could 
justify Mrs. Eddy's claim to be a divinely inspired teacher for 
the present age. In Miss Milmine's words : 

"The basic ideas of the book and much of the terminology 
were, of course, borrowed from the Quimby papers which 
Mrs. Glover had carried reverently about with her since 1864, 
and from which she had taught his doctrines. But in the 
elaboration and amplification of the Quimby theory, Mrs. 
Glover introduced some totally new propositions and many 
an ingenious argument." * 

If, then, Mrs. Eddy has been a loser through this contro- 
versy, it is not so much because of what she borrowed from 
Quimby, but because of her unwillingness to admit her obliga- 
tion to him, an unwillingness which had its roots in her pre- 
tensions to a divine revelation. 

The first edition, despite the untiring efforts of Mrs. Eddy 
and one of her students, Mr. Spofford, to make it known, was 
far from creating a widespread interest and from being a finan- 
cial success. 

"Mrs. Glover and Mr. Spofford advertised the book by 
means of handbills and through the newspapers, printing 
testimonials of the wonderful cures made by the application 
of the Science, and urging all to buy the book which would 
tell them all about it. Copies were sent to the leading New 
England newspapers for review, accompanied by a request to 
the editors to print nothing about the book, if a favorable 
notice could not be given. This request was respected by 
some of the papers, but others criticized the book severely, or 
referred to it flippantly. Copies were also sent to the Univer- 
sity of Heidelberg, to Thomas Carlyle, and to several noted 

1 Milmine: op. cit., p. 178. Cf. on the Quimby controversy, pp. 71-104, 
162 ff. Dresser's History, pp. 97-125, 



48 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

theologians and literary men. But the book made no stir, 
and, outside of the little band of devoted Christian Scientists, 
its advent was unobserved." 1 

Other ways and means to bring it before the public had to 
be devised. Mr. Spofford was induced to give up his practice 
and devote all his time to further the sale of the book, paying 
out of his own pocket for advertising and personal expenses 
five hundred dollars which were never reimbursed. Meanwhile 
Mrs. Eddy was scheming to extend her influence. In a letter 
dated April, 1877, she urged her partner "to try to get students 
into the field as practitioners," and thus, she continued, "heal- 
ing will sell the book and introduce the Science more than aught 
but my lecturing can do. Send the name of any you can get 
to study for the purpose of practicing, and in six months or 
thereabouts we will have them in the field helping you." 2 

In July, 1877, Mr. Spofford closed out the first edition and 
paid over the money which he received to George H. Barry and 
Elizabeth M. Newhall, who had furnished the money to publish 
it. But long before this Mrs. Eddy had busied herself with 
the preparation of a second edition. She became enraged at 
Mr. Spofford for not turning the receipts over to herself, 
classed him with the mesmerists and had him expelled in Jan- 
uary, 1878. 3 She went further. 

"The second edition which Mr. Spofford had labored upon 
and helped to prepare, was hastily revised and converted into 
a running attack upon him, hurried to press, labeled Volume 
II, and sent panting after Science and Health, which was not 
labeled Volume I, and which had already been in the world 
three years. This odd little brown book, with the ark and 
troubled waters on the cover, is made up of a few chapters 
snatched from the 1875 edition, interlarded with vigorous 
rhetoric such as the following apostrophe to Spofford: 

" 'Behold ! thou criminal mental marauder, that would 

a Milmine: op. tit., p. 177. 

"Ibid., p. 216. 

3 Ibid., p. 233. Mr. Spofford received the following notice: "Dr. D. H. 
Spofford of Newburyport has been expelled from the Association of Chris- 
tian Scientists for immorality and as unworthy to be a member." Immorality 
meant disloyalty to Mrs. Eddy. 



The True Origin of Christian Science 49 

blot out the sunshine of earth, that would sever friends, de- 
stroy virtue, put out Truth, and murder in secret the inno- 
cent, befouling the track with the trophies of thy guilt, — I 
say, Behold the "cloud no bigger than a man's hand" already 
rising in the horizon of Truth, to pour down upon thy guilty 
head the hailstones of doom.' " x 

In all this there is little enough that savors of the super-" 
natural, but even as a natural means for securing health but 
little confidence can be placed in this discovery, seeing that the 
discoverer, at the very time when she offered health to others, 
was herself suffering intensely from ill-health. The following 
letter, written about this time to her ephemeral friend Spofford, 
whom she still called familiarly Harry (Harrison), is typical of 
her perturbed state of mind. 

"Boston, April 14, 1877. 

"Dear Student: This hour of my departure I pick up 
from the carpet a piece of paper write you a line to say I 
am at length driven into the wilderness. Everything needs 
me in science, my doors are thronged, the book lies waiting, 
but those who call on me mentally in suffering are in belief 
killing me! Stopping my work that none but me can do in 
their supreme selfishness ; how unlike the example I have left 
them ! Tell this to Miss Brown, Mr. McLauthlen, Mrs. At- 
kinson, and Miss Norman but do not let them know they can 
call on me thus if they are doing this ignorantly and if they 
do it consciously tell McLauthlen and them all it would be no 
greater crime for them to come directly and thrust a dagger 
into my heart they are just as surely in belief killing me and 
committing murder. 

"The sin lies at their door and for them to meet its pen- 
alty sometime. You can teach them better, see you do this. 

"O ! Harry, the book must stop. I can do no more now 
if ever. They lay on me suffering inconceivable. 

"If the students will continue to think of me and call on 
me, I shall at last defend myself and this will be to cut them 
off from me utterly in a spiritual sense by a bridge they 
cannot pass over and the effect of this on them they will then 
learn. 
1 Milmine : op. cit., p. 225. 



50 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

"I will let you hear from me as soon as I can bear this 
on account of my health; and will return to prosecute my 
work on the Book as soon as I can safely. I am going far 
away and shall remain until you will do your part and give 
me some better prospect. 

"Ever truly, 

"Mary." 1 

We have seen how by an irony of fate this second edition 
of which Mrs. Eddy here speaks so feelingly to Mr. Spofford 
eventually was turned into a personal attack on the same Mr. 
Spofford on whom at this time Mrs. Eddy leaned so heavily. 
The second, as well as the first, edition is now tabooed and as 
far as possible suppressed. Two other editions followed and 
then Mrs. Eddy decided to have her fifth edition revised by 
one who had been a Unitarian minister, but had retired from 
the ministry and devoted himself to writing and editing. After 
examining the manuscript, Mr. Wiggin told Mrs. Eddy "that 
he could do nothing by merely correcting her manuscript ; that 
to improve it he would have largely to rewrite it. To his sur- 
prise, she willingly consented to this. During the autumn of 
1885 Mr. Wiggin occupied himself with this task, which Mrs. 
Eddy carefully supervised to see that he did not in the least 
modify her views and that her favorite phrases were allowed 
to stand." 2 

Mr. Wiggin rendered other services to Mrs. Eddy. Though 
he never was a Christian Scientist, he did for four years edi- 
torial work for the Journal of Christian Science, and did his 
best "to keep Mrs. Eddy from making herself ridiculous," as he 
himself often said. Mrs. Eddy appreciated his services and 
sometimes she would slyly remark : "Mr. Wiggin, do you know, 
I sometimes believe God speaks to me through you." On one 
occasion Mr. Wiggin became even co-author of Science and 
Health: he persuaded his literary client to omit a portion of 
the chapter on Malicious Animal Magnetism, because he con- 
sidered it libelous, and in order not to have to renumber the 

1 Milmine: op. cit., p. x?14, italics are Mrs. Eddy's. The original punctua- 
tion has been preserved. 
2 Ibid., p. 328. 



The True Origin of Christian Science 51 

pages, she inserted at Mr. Wiggin's suggestion a sermon he 
had written for her, cutting it down to the required size. "The 
chapter was called 'Wayside Hints (Supplementary), and Mrs. 
Eddy put her seal upon it by inserting under the subject of 
squareness a tribute to her deceased husband: 'We need good 
square men everywhere. Such a man was my late husband, 
Dr. Asa G. Eddy.' " x 

"Many a time," writes Mr. Peabody, "have I heard Mr. 
Wiggin say with a chuckle of amusement that it was a source of 
much mirth to him to hear from time to time Mrs. Eddy's 
devotees exclaim, with pious earnestness, that the chapter he 
had written at so much per word was the very most divinely- 
inspired portion of the divine volume." 2 

Since Mr. Wiggin was so closely associated with Mrs. Eddy 
and knew her so intimately, it will be interesting to read part of 
his criticism on Christian Science, written by him about this 
time to an old college friend and reproduced in part by Miss 
Milmine. I shall select chiefly that section which applies di- 
rectly to Mrs. Eddy and her textbook. 

"As for the High Priestess of it (of Christian Science)," 
he wrote, ". . . she is — well, I could tell you, but not write. 
An awfully (I use the word advisedly) smart woman, acute, 
shrewd, but not well-read, nor in any way learned. What 
she has, as documents clearly show, she got from P. P. 
Quimby of Portland, Maine, whom she eulogized after death 
as the great leader and her special teacher. . . . She tried to 
answer the charge of the adoption of Quimby's ideas, and 
called me in to counsel her about it; but her only answer (in 
print) was that, if she said such things twenty years ago, 
she must have been under the influence of animal magnetism, 
which is her devil. Much more could I say if you were 
here. . . . 

"Only experience can teach these fanatics (the Christian 
Scientists), i. e., the real believers, not the charlatans who 
go into it for money. ... As for the book, if you have any 
edition since December, 1885, it had my supervision. Though 
now she is getting out an entirely new edition, with which I 

1 Milmine: op. cit., p. 335. 

2 Peabody: op. cit., p. 68. 



52 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

have nothing to do, and occasionlly she has made changes, 

whereof I did not know. The chapter B told you of 

is rather fanciful, though, to use Mrs. Eddy's language in 
her last note, 'her friends think it a gem.' It is the one 
called 'Wayside Hints,' and was added after the work was 
not only in type, but cast, because she wished to take out 
some twenty pages of diatribe on her dissenters. ... I do 
not think it will greatly edify you, the chapter. As for 
clearness, many Christian Science people thought her early 
editions much better, because they sounded more like Mrs. 
Eddy. The truth is, she does not care to have her paragraphs 
clear, and delights in so expressing herself that her words may 
have various readings and meanings. Really that is one of 
the tricks of the trade. You know sibyls have always betn 
thus oracular, to 'keep the word of promise to the ear and 
break it to the hope.' 

"Quimby had definite ideas, but Mrs. Eddy has not under- 
stood them. . . . 

"When I first knew Christian Science, I wrote a defensive 
pamphlet called 'Christian Science and the Bible' (though I 
did not believe the doctrine). ... I found fair game in the 
assaults of orthodoxy upon Mrs. Eddy, and support in the 
supernaturalism of the Bible ; but I did not pretend to give 
an exposition of Christian Science, and I did not know the 
old lady as well as I do now. 

"No, Swedenborg and all other such writers, are sealed 
books to her. She cannot understand such utterances, and 
never could, but dollars and cents she understands thor- 
oughly. 

"Her influence is wonderful. . . ." 1 

The space devoted here to the composition and make-up 
of Science and Health is not excessive considering the import- 
ance of the "textbook" for every Christian Scientist. Mrs. 
Eddy needed a divine book to attain her end and she created 
one. On other points she might recede; on this one she must 
remain firm. For this purpose she placed herself — by innuendo 
at least — on a level with Christ. She saw herself in the woman 
of the Apocalypse (chapter 12), clothed with the sun, the 

1 Milmine : op. cit., pp. 337-339. 



The True Origin of Christian Science 53 

moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. 
She writes, apocalyptically enough : 

"The twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse . . . has a spe- 
cial suggestiveness in connection with this nineteenth century. 
In the opening of the sixth seal, typical of six thousand- 
years since Adam, the distinctive feature has special refer- 
ence to the present age. . . . The woman in the Apocalypse 
is the vignette which illustrates as man the spiritual idea of 
God, and God and man as the divine Principle and divine 
idea. ... As Elias represents the fatherhood of God 
through Jesus, so the Revelator completes this figure with 
woman as the spiritual idea or type of God's motherhood." 1 

Mrs. Eddy went so far as to place her "precious volume" 
above the Bible. "Even the Scriptures," she declares, "gave no 
direct interpretation of the Scientific basis for demonstrating 
the spiritual Principle of healing, until our Heavenly Father 
saw fit, through the Key to the Scriptures in Science mid 
Health, to unlock this 'mystery of godliness.' " 2 

Mrs. Eddy was evidently doing her very best to secure for 
her book, the fruit of her tireless industry, the object of her 
greatest affections, that honor, veneration and implicit belief 
which Protestantism was wont to bestow on the Bible, and on 
the Bible alone. She took, at the same time, all necessary 
precautions that the mother should not be forgotten in the 
growing fame of the child. The Church Manual, first issued in 
1895, as it regulates all the details of Christian Science church 
life, became the most efficient instrument for this purpose. 
Whenever any new emergency arose, a new by-law was added, 
to which all Christian Scientists at once religiously bowed. For 
by this time Mrs. Eddy had trained her vine so as to be re- 
sponsive to the slightest touch of her hand. A set of by-laws, 
bearing on the Textbook, serve the purpose, not only of en- 
hancing the prestige of the book and proclaiming the fame of 
its author, but also of securing for it a ready sale. For these 

1 Science and Health, pp. 559-562. 

2 Retrospection, p. 47. Cf. Christian Science Journal, November, 1885. 
"What a triumphant career is this for a woman! Can it be anything less 
than the tabernacle of God with men, the fulfillment of the vision of the 
lonely seer on the Isle of Patmos, the wonder in heaven delivering the child 
which shall rule all nations?" 



54 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

reasons some of the by-laws form an interesting study. One 
secures Mrs. Eddy's honor by imposing on every member the 
bounden duty not to quote from her works without mentioning 
her name: 

"Art. XV, sect. 1 : To pour into the ear of listeners the 
sacred revelations of Christian Science indiscriminately, or 
without characterizing their origin, and thus distinguishing 
them from the writings of authors who think at random on 
this subject, is to lose some weight in the scale of right think- 
ing. Therefore it is the duty of every member of this Church, 
when publicly reading or quoting from the books or poems 
of our Pastor Emeritus, first to announce the name of the 
author. Members shall also instruct their pupils to adopt 
the aforenamed method for the benefit of our Cause." 

Another by-law copes with the danger that might arise to 
the Cause from the too great prominence which some preachers 
were quickly acquiring. To obviate such a calamity, a 
ukase went out in 1895 which demanded of all pastors to step 
down from their pulpits and to make room for the one, only and 
perpetual preacher and pastor, the Textbook : x 

"Art. XIV, sect. 1 : 1, Mary Baker Eddy, ordain the Bible 
and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Pastor 
over The Mother Church, — the First Church of Christ, Scien- 
tist, in Boston, Massachusetts . . . they will continue to 
preach for this Church and the world." 

This leaves the Christian Science services without preachers 
and without sermons. Instead, two readers are appointed to 
hold office for the term of three years. Originally, the First 
Reader, the one higher in dignity and drawing a larger salary," 
was to read from the Bible, and the Second Reader, from 
Science and Health; but Mrs. Eddy soon reversed this order, 
and now the First Reader reads the so-called "correlative" 

a In Miscellaneous Writings (p. 382) Mrs. Eddy makes this ludicrous 
pronouncement even more general, saying: "In 1895 I ordained that the 
Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, the Christian 
Science textbook, be the pastor, on this planet, of all the churches of the 
Christian Science denomination. . . . Whenever and wherever a church 
of Christian Science is established, its pastor is the Bible and my book." 



The True Origin of Christian Science 55 

passages from the Textbook. This reading is called the Lesson- 
Sermon, which, since 1897, the First Reader always introduces 
with the following explanatory note : 

"Friends : The Bible and the Christian Science Textbook 
are our only preachers. We shall now read Scriptural texts, 
and their correlative passages from our denominational text- 
book — these comprise our sermon. The canonical writings 
together with the word of our textbook, corroborating and 
explaining the Bible texts in their spiritual import and appli- 
cation to all ages, past, present and future, constitute a ser- 
mon, undivorced from truth, uncontaminated and unfettered 
by human hypotheses, and divinely authorized. 

"The afternoon (or evening) service is a repetition of the 



To guard against the danger that a Reader might circum- 
vent the law abolishing preaching by adding explanations to 
his reading, the Readers are warned against such an abuse of 
power. 

"Art. Ill, sect. 6: They (namely the Readers) shall make 
no remarks explanatory of the Lesson-Sermon at any time, 
but they shall read all notices and remarks that may be 
printed in the Christian Science Quarterly. This By-Law 
applies to Readers in all the branch churches." 2 

If Mrs. Eddy, by effectually crushing all individuality out 
of Christian Science, raised herself to a position of authority 
to which very few mortals ever aspired, she did not on that ac- 
count lose sight of the mere material advantages which accrued 
to her from this monopoly. She had advertised the first edition 
of Science and Health as a book "that affords an opportunity 
to acquire a profession by which you can accumulate a for- 
tune." 3 Consistently with this creed, she took extraordinary 
pains to make her fortune out of her book. A few facts will 
make this clear. Her book was hers, and no one was entitled to 

1 Consult any number of Christian Science Quarterly. 

2 Branch churches are all called Christian Science churches with the one 
exception of The Mother Church, the First Church of Christ, Scientist, in 
Boston, Mass. 

3 Cf . Milmine : op. cit., in McClure's Magazine, Vol. XXXI, p. 186. 



56 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

derive any benefit from it except he was willing and able to 
own his own copy. 

"Art. VIII, sect. 9: No member shall use written for- 
mulas, nor permit his patients or pupils to use them as 
auxiliaries to teaching Christian Science, or for healing the 
sick. Whatever is requisite for either, is contained in the 
books of the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. 
Sometimes she may strengthen the faith by a written text 
as no one else can. 

"Sect . 10 : A member of this Church shall not publish pro- 
fuse quotations from Mary Baker Eddy's copyrighted works 
without her permission and shall not plagiarize her writings. 
This By-Law not only calls more serious attention to the 
Commandment of the Decalogue, but tends to prevent Chris- 
tian Science from being adulterated." 

Yet lest there should remain any doubt about her wishes 
in this so important matter, she published in Science and Health 
a statement which leaves nothing to be desired in point of clear- 
ness. She says : 

"A Christian Scientist requires my work Science and 
Health for his text-book, and so do all his students and pa- 
tients. Why? First: Because it is the voice of Truth to 
this age, and contains the whole of Christian Science, or the 
Science of healing through Mind. Second: Because it was 
the first published book containing a statement of Chris- 
tian Science ; because it gave the first rules for demonstrat- 
ing this Science, and registered the revealed Truth, un- 
contaminated by human hypotheses. Other works which 
have borrowed from this book without giving it credit, 
have adulterated the Science. Third: Because this book 
has done more for teacher and student, for healer and patient, 
than has been accomplished by other books." x 

In order to multiply its sale, Mrs. Eddy multiplied its 
editions and expected that at least every practitioner should 

1 Science and Health, p. 456. Malevolent critics have added a fourth and 
more cogent reason than any of the others: it is this that every volume sold 
brought in the sum of three dollars, the greater part of which was pure 
profit for Mrs. Eddy. It is through the sale of this book chiefly that she 
amassed a fortune of several millions. 



The True Origin of Christian Science '51 

use always the latest edition, however trivial might be the 
changes she had introduced. The extremes to which she went 
in this direction can be gauged from a notice that appeared in 
the Journal as late as February, 1908, Mrs. Eddy then being 
nearly eighty-seven years old. Here is its exact reproduction. 

Take Notice 

I request Christian Scientists universally to read the 
paragraph beginning at line thirty of page 442 in the edition 
of Science and Health which will be issued February 29. I 
consider the information there given to be of great import- 
ance at this stage of the workings of animal magnetism, and 
it will greatly aid the students in their individual experiences. 

Maky Baker G. Eddy. 

The edition sold fast on the strength of this notice ; but 
the information of great importance which Christian Scientists 
thus acquired, filled just two lines inserted in a blank space 
at the end of a chapter and necessitated the change of no other 
plate of a single page in the book. It would have occupied 
considerably less space than the notice recommending its per- 
usal and reads as follows : "Christian Scientists, be a law to 
yourselves, that mental malpractice can harm you neither when 
asleep nor when awake." * 

As there will be no other occasion to come back on this 
subject, the following proofs, among others, of Mrs. Eddy's 
commercialism may find a place here. In March, 1897, she 
forbade all her followers to teach any student for one year, 
commencing on March 14, 1897, the motive for this sweeping 
prohibition being the publication of her new work Miscellaneous 
Writings. 

"Miscellaneous Writings," she there announced, "is cal- 
culated to prepare the minds of all true thinkers to under- 
stand the Christian Science textbook more correctly than a 
student can. The Bible, Science and Health with Key to the 
Scriptures, and my other published works are the only proper 
instructors for this hour. It shall be the duty of all Chris- 
tian Scientists to circulate and to sell as many of the books 
J Cf. Peabody: op. cit., p. 138. 



58 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

as they can. If a member of The First Church of Christ, 
Scientist, shall fail to obey this injunction, it will render 
him liable to lose his membership in this Church." 

Mary Baker G. Eddy. 

The following notice needs no comment : 

Christian Science Spoons. — On each of these most beauti- 
ful spoons is a motto in bas-relief that every person on earth 
needs to hold in thought. Mother 1 requests that Christian 
Scientists shall not ask to be informed what this motto is, 
but each Scientist shall purchase at least one spoon, and 
those who can afford it, one dozen spoons, that their families 
may read this motto at every meal, and their guests be made 
partakers of its simple truth. 

Mary Baker G. Eddy. 2 

The price of these spoons was three dollars for the plain 
silver one, and five dollars apiece for those with gold plated 
bowls. 

We have exposed abundantly Mrs. Eddy's assumption of 
superior knowledge, practical infallibility and divine authority 
for her alleged revelation. It matters little that for Mrs. Eddy 
everything is supremely natural, 3 and that, consequently, the 
word revelation can have no intelligible meaning for her, other 
than that of a dawning of new ideas with no supernatural origin 
and no supernatural guarantee. That the word revelation did 
not have for Mrs. Eddy the meaning which Christians attach 
to it never entered into the minds of her credulous followers. 
They took her words as they sounded and looked upon her as 
an inspired prophet. This belief profoundly influenced their 
thoughts and lives, and, as a fundamental part of their new- 
found faith, is undoubtedly an important factor in their cures. 

We must, however, absolutely reject Mrs. Eddy's claims to a 
divine revelation. Her conflicting statements about the date 
of this revelation, Quimby's manuscript as the source of her 

1 Mrs. Eddy had reserved the endearing title Mother for herself, until 
Mr. Clemens' attacks induced her to exchange it for that of Leader. Cf. 
Mark Twain: Christian Science (New York, 1907), pp. 331 ff. 

2 Peabody: op. cit., pp. 143 ff., 134 ff. 

3 "Now as then his mighty works are not supernatural, but supremely 
natural." Science and Health, Preface xi. 






The True Origin of Christian Science 59 

inspiration, her commercialism, the changes constantly intro- 
duced in her work, all tell against her. Mr. Peabody reaches 
this conclusion. 

"When the most corrupt tree in the orchard brings 
forth the sweetest and most beautiful fruit of all, it will be 
believed that Mary Baker Eddy can be the channel through 
which God has revealed Himself to mankind, and it will not 
be believed until then. ... I am of those who believe that 
there can be no religion but a religion based on revelation. 
Either God reveals Himself to us, or He remains unknown 
and unknowable. . . . This great truth has been and is the 
common belief of mankind, and every unprincipled person 
who has appealed to human credulity along religious lines, 
knowing mankind so to believe, has faked a revelation from 
God. Mrs. Eddy has put herself in a class by herself by the 
boldness, the irreverence, the recklessness, the blasphemy of 
her pretended intimacy with God." x 

% Peabody: op. cit., p. 56. 



CHAPTER IV 



METAPHYSICAL BASIS 



"It is difficult to give a condensed summary of the con- 
tents of Science and Health because of the lack of order and 
system in its arrangement and in its ideas. The chapters 
themselves have several times been shifted around in a differ- 
ent order, and they might be shuffled again without any loss 
of logic. The very titles of the chapters sometimes have little 
aptness as designations of their contents. The order of the 
paragraphs in the chapters also follows no inherent plan and 
progress and frequently baffles the reader to find and follow 
any thread of connection. There are only a few fundamental 
ideas in the book, and these are endlessly iterated and reiter- 
ated until one's sense of interest and attention is dulled into 
drowsiness : reading the book is like listening to a player on 
a violin who keeps sawing on one string and making few vari- 
ations on that. One realW has to maintain a firm grip on 
his attention to keep from falling into a stupor while perus- 
ing these monotonous pages." 1 

This estimate of Dr. Snowden's is well deserved. It is the 
general complaint of all who had to study Mrs. Eddy's text- 
book. 

"For," says Mark Twain, "of all the strange and frantic 
and incomprehensible and uninterpretable books which the 
imagination of man has created, surely this one is the prize 
sample. It is written with a limitless confidence and compla- 
cency, and with a dash and stir and earnestness which often 
compel the effects of eloquence, even when the words do not 
seem to have any traceable meaning." 2 

Mrs. Eddy admits the indictment, but places the blame on 

"the inadequacy of material terms" for metaphysical state- 

^nowden: The Truth about Christian Science, p. 102. 
3 Mark Twain: Christian Science (New York, 1907), p. 29. 



Metaphysical Basis 61 

ments and the consequent difficulty of so expressing meta- 
physical ideas as to make them comprehensible to any reader 
who has not personally demonstrated Christian Science. "The 
great difficulty is to give the right impression when translating 
material terms back into the original spiritual tongue." * 

The real reasons for Mrs. Eddy's difficulties are not the 
inadequacy of the English language, but are in the first place 
the author's lack of logical thinking and of any mental training 
in philosophical reasoning, and, secondly, her custom of putting 
strange, unconventional and fanciful meanings on the most 
ordinary words, thus intentionally introducing a source of 
confusion and obscurity of thought where clearness of expres- 
sion is above all desired. Her Key to the Scripture, represent- 
ing as it does her spiritual interpretation of the sacred text, 
is nothing but just such a jumble of words. To give a few 
examples, Issachar, Jacob's son, is defined as corporeal belief; 
Jacob himself as a corporeal mortal embracing duplicity, re- 
pentance, sensualism, and yet — mirabile dictu — representing at 
the same time Inspiration and the Revelation of Science ( Chris- 
tian Science of course) ; Jerusalem becomes mortal belief and 
knowledge, obtained from the five corporeal senses; Jesus is 
the highest human corporeal concept of the divine idea; Joseph 
is, like Jacob, a corporeal mortal, but with a higher sense of 
Truth, rebuking mortal belief or error; Judah is, like Issachar, 
only more so a corporeal material belief progressing and disap- 
pearing, while at the same time it is the spiritual understanding 
of God and man appearing. 2 

Not only is this freedom with human speech employed for 
the spiritual interpretation of the Scripture, but it runs all 
through her work. "After the author's sacred discovery," she 
herself says, "she affixed the name Science to Christianity ; the 
name error to corporeal sense, and the name substance to 
Mind." 3 In Retrospection and Introspection Mrs. Eddy 
makes a similar avowal and is to all appearances quite satisfied 
with her achievement. 



* Science and Health, p. 115. 
"Ibid., Glossary, p. 589. 
3 Ibid., p. 483. 



62 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

"The Bible was my textbook. It answered my question 
as to how I was healed; but the Scriptures had to me a new 
meaning, a new tongue. Their spiritual significance ap- 
peared; and I apprehended for the first time, in their spir- 
itual meaning Jesus' teaching and demonstration, and the 
Principle and rule of spiritual Science and Metaphysical 
Healing, — in a word, Christian Science. 

"I named it Christian, because it is compassionate, help- 
ful and spiritual. God I called Immortal Mind. That which 
sins, suffers and dies I named mortal mind. The physical 
senses, or sensuous nature, I called error and shadow. Soul 
I denominated Substance, because soul alone is truly sub- 
stantial. God I characterized as individual entity, but His 
corporeality I denied. The Real I claimed as eternal ; and 
its antipodes, or the temporal, I described as unreal. Spirit 
I called the reality; and matter, the unreality.'''' x 

Here then we have a key to Mrs. Eddy's writings which will 
prove much more serviceable than her so-called key to the 
Scripture ever will be. Why she should not call God, the physi- 
cal senses, the soul, matter and the other things by their rightful 
names is inexplicable except on the ground that she wished 
to mystify her students by unintelligible jargon. That she, 
Mrs. Eddy, the founder of a new religion and of a new Church, 
called the senses an error and a shadow, and called spirit the 
reality, and matter the unreality, neither added to, nor de- 
tracted from, the received connotation of these words. With 
as much reason she might call a horse a house, and a house a 
horse, and nobody would know the drift of her conversation, but 
forsooth, the privileges of the revelator and the prophet of a 
new religion would be safe. For Mrs. Eddy the real means the 
eternal, the unreal means matter, that which sins, suffers and 
dies, is called mortal mind: such are a few of the choice flowers 
taken from Mrs. Eddy's vocabulary; not as though there was 
anything in these terms that made them synonymous, but Mrs. 
Eddy without proof or reason just chose to call, name, de- 
nominate or characterize them so, no doubt because she thus 
rendered herself less intelligible, more mystifying. After these 

1 Retrospection, p. 29-30. 



Metaphysical Basis 63 

preliminaries we may set ourselves to the task of explaining the 
principles that underlie Christian Science and New Thought. 

I. THE UNIVERSAL MIND 

A chasm, wide and deep, must at the very beginning be 
drawn between Mind and mind. With a capital, Mind is God, 
the real; with a small initial, mind is mortal mind, error, illu- 
sion, the unreal. 

Mind (with a capital M) is defined in the Glossary as 
"The only I, or Us"; again as "the only Spirit, as Soul, as 
divine Principle, and Substance, as Life, Truth and Love." 
Again it is defined as "the one God," as the "Deity which out- 
lines, but is not outlined." It is expressly stated that it is not 
that which is in man (small m), but that it is the divine Prin- 
ciple (or God) of whom Man (with a capital M) is the full 
and perfect expression. 1 

Here we possess a wealth of synonyms which, on the whole, 
advance us but little. So we try again. 

God is the great I AM. He is all-knowing, all-acting, all- 
wise, all-loving and eternal. He is Principle, Mind, Soul and 
Spirit. He is Truth and Love. He is all substance. He is 
Intelligence. God is Life, and Life is the divine Mind, and the 
divine Mind is eternal; Life, therefore, cannot be limited: it 
has neither beginning nor end. God is Soul or spirit. Con- 
sequently "there is no finite soul or spirit." These terms mean 
"the only mind and cannot be rendered in the plural." All 
these terms are consequently absolutely synonymous. "They 
refer to one absolute God and nothing else." There is not more 
than one Principle. "Principle is divine, one Life, one Truth, 
one Love, and this is God omnipotent." "Mind is all and matter 
is naught is the leading factor in Mind-Science," for "Christian 
Science reveals incontrovertibly that Mind is All-in-all, that the 
only realities are the divine Mind and idea." 2 

Here we may be permitted to stop for a few considerations. 
Mrs. Eddy's concept of God, despite her protests, is pantheis- 
tical. In the beginning she objected to calling God a person, 

1 Science and Health, p. 591. Cf . pp. 468-469, 587. 

2 Ibid., p. 109. 



64 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

precisely because, not knowing the import of the word, she 
imagined it destroyed her pantheistical conception of God. 
Later on she wrote: 

"As the words person and personal are commonly and ig- 
norantly employed, they often lead, when applied to Deity, to 
confused and erroneous conceptions of divinity, and its dis- 
tinction from humanity. If the term personality, as applied 
to God, means infinite personality, then God is infinite Person, 
— in this sense, but not in the lower sense. An infinite Mind 
and a finite form do not, cannot coalesce." x 

The expression Principle, so dear to Mrs. Eddy, leaves the 
reader or hearer cold and indifferent. That God should be 
called Soul is unjustifiable, except on the pantheistic principle 
that he is the world-soul; or on the scientistic principle that 
there is no other soul, no other spirit, no created soul and no 
created spirit. "The term souls or spirits is as improper as the 
term gods," says Mrs. Eddy. 2 

Is this Pantheism? By no means, retorts Mrs. Eddy. And 
to prove it, she publishes a small pamphlet of fifteen pages, 
retailing at twenty-five cents a copy, entitled Christian Science 
vs. Pantheism. There is, however, a hitch in her demonstration, 
and it lies in the fact that as many other words, so also the word 
Pantheism receives from the Founder of Christian Science a 
scientistic twist which takes it out of the common man's vocabu- 
lary and gives it a new meaning altogether. "Pantheism," Mrs. 
Eddy says, "may be defined as a belief in the intelligence of 
matter." 3 It surely may be so defined ; Christian Science 
also may be so defined; no dictionary, however, would agree 
with this definition. Any dictionary would have told Mrs. Eddy 
that Pantheism is "the doctrine that the universe is God," or 
"the system of theology in which it is maintained that the 
universe is the supreme God." And this is exactly what Mrs. 
Eddy maintains. A pantheistical conception of the universe, 

1 Science and Health, p. 116. 

2 Ibid., p. 466. Eddy: No and Yes (Boston, 1917), p. 20. "When the 
term divine Principle is used to signify Deity, it may seem distant or cold, 
until better apprehended. This Principle is Mind, substance. — Life, Truth, 
Love. When understood, Principle is found to be the only term that fully 
conveys the ideas of God, — one Mind, a perfect Man, and divine Science." 

3 Ibid., p. 129. 



Metaphysical Basis 65 

undoubtedly, underlies her whole teaching, call it an idealistic 
Pantheism, if you wish, but Pantheism, just the same. This 
places Christian Science outside the sphere of genuine Chris- 
tianity and accounts for the great difference between Mrs. 
Eddy's conception of God and our own. Our God is Mind and 
Free Will ; hers is only Mind, without any freedom of activity. 
How this works out in practice remains to be seen. 

II. THE UNREALITY OF MATTER 

Nothing in Mrs. Eddy's system seems to be more certain 
than that matter has no existence; but, on the other hand, 
nothing seems to be more plain than that it has. Is this merely 
a delusion of mortal mind? Is it that Mrs. Eddy did not see 
the contradiction in her system or is it merely a question of 
words, a logomachia, introduced to baffle and impress those 
who take Mrs. Eddy seriously? This we have to find out. 

The following extract contains in a way Mrs. Eddy's pro- 
fession of faith in the unreality of matter. 

"I, therefore," she says, "plant myself unreservedly on 
the teachings of Jesus, of his apostles, of the prophets, and 
on the testimony of the Science of Mind. Other foundations 
there are none. All other systems — systems based wholly 
or partly on knowledge gained through the material senses — 
are reeds shaken by the winds, not houses built on the rock. 

"The theories I combat are these: (1) That all is mat- 
ter; (2) that matter originates in Mind, and is as real as 
Mind, possessing intelligence and life. 

"The first theory, that matter is everything, is quite as 
reasonable as the second, that Mind and matter coexist and 
cooperate. One only of the following statements can be 
true: (1) that everything is matter; (2) that everything is 
Mind. Which one is it?" 1 

Repeatedly Mrs. Eddy argues, almost pleads with, her read- 
ers that God, being Spirit, could not possibly create anything 
material. Instinctively she felt that by this statement she was 
taking issue with all theistic philosophers. In the absence of 
any rational argument she resorts to the practice of impress- 
1 Science and Health, pp. 269-270, 



66 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

ing by the frequency of repetition. On the ground, apparently, 
that you have only to assert long enough and loud enough, to 
have almost anything accepted, she again and again dins into 
the ear of her hearers the same old statement of the unreality, 
the non-existence, the non-actuality, even the impossibility of 
matter. 

If we should object that if there is anything certain, it is 
the existence of matter, that we may doubt about its nature, its 
constituent parts, its final analysis and its origin, but not 
about its existence of which our senses give us direct evidence, 
Mrs. Eddy would promptly reply: How can you rely on your 
senses? Have they not been proved over and over again un- 
trustworthy? If senses play you false when they display before 
your eyes the mirage of a beautiful, but non-existent landscape, 
how can you trust them when they impress you with some- 
thing that cannot possibly exist? Matter cannot exist because 
it is unreality ; the ver} r senses that we suppose give testimony 
of its existence, are themselves an illusion of the mind: they 
are no more real than the rest of the material errors. 

With the reality and trustworthiness of the senses denied, 
there is, of course, no possibility of arguing in a rational man- 
ner. The only hope of convincing the opponent of his error 
is to show that neither he nor any one else has ever consistently 
maintained, throughout, this pretense of a thoroughgoing 
idealism. Take as an instance the following passages picked 
at random : On page 277 Mrs. Eddy writes : 

"Natural history presents vegetable and animals as pre- 
serving their original species, — like producing like. A min- 
eral is not produced by a vegetable, nor the man by the brute. 
In reproduction, throughout the entire round of nature, the 
order of genus and species is preserved." 

And again on page 211 : 

"Nerves are not the source of pain nor pleasure. We 
suffer or enjoy in our dreams, but this pain or pleasure is not 
communicated through a nerve. A tooth extracted sometimes 
aches again in belief, and the pain seems to be again in its 
old place. A limb amputated has continued, in belief, to pain 



Metaphysical Basis 6^ 

the owner. If the sensation of pain in the limb can return 
and be prolonged, why could not the limb reappear?" 

Surely these passages do not sound like denying the reality 
of the material world. Even when she is arguing against the 
reality of matter, as she is in these cases, she is forced to take 
for granted many things that could not be so but for the exist- 
ence of matter. The very words she uses — nerves, tooth, limb, 
vegetable, animal, mineral — are meaningless, if matter is unreal 
in the full sense of this word. But Mrs. Eddy is not thus easily 
silenced. She always left a loophole open through which she 
could retreat when circumstances required. Her final plea, ap- 
plicable in all emergencies, was that her words did not represent 
her meaning: 

"If our words fail to express our deeds, God will redeem 
that weakness, and out of the mouth of babes he will perfect 
praise. . . . The opponents of Christian Science must be 
charitable, if they would be Christian. If the letter of Chris- 
tian Science appears inconsistent, they should gain its spir- 
itual meaning, and then the ambiguity will vanish. . . . 1 In 
Christian Science there are no discords, because its logic is 
as harmonious as the reasoning of an accurately stated syl- 
logism, or of a properly computed sum in arithmetic." 2 

What, then, is this spiritual meaning Mrs. Eddy boasts of? 
She tells us that matter is not real, but also that "the real I 
claimed as eternal, and its antipodes, or the temporal, I de- 
scribed as unreal. Spirit I called the reality, and matter the 
unreality." 3 If we take our clew from these words, we come 
to the conclusion that, after all, if the expression may be 
permitted, there is question only of "naming" the child : Spirit 
jf called the reality, and matter, the unreality. We should much 
prefer to speak of the eternal as the eternal, and of the real 
as the real, and to abide by the meaning our dictionaries predi- 
cate of the words. "Real" means anything that is not merely 
fictitious or imaginary; but if we could take it in the sense of 
eternal, we would, of course, all agree that God alone is real. 

1 Science and Health, p. 354. 

2 Ibid., p. 129. 

3 Retrospection, p. 30. 



68 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

Yet, even now we have not caught the full meaning of Mrs. 
Eddy's assertion that God is real and the material world unreal. 
This means not merely that God is eternal and matter is not, 
but that matter has no existence, I do not say independently 
of God, what we all would admit, but outside of Mind. Mrs. 
Eddy is an idealist for whom all realities are ideas. In vain 
do her Protestant critics labor to prove that she cannot be con- 
sidered a representative of any of the idealistic schools of 
philosophy, be it that of Plato, of Fichte, of Schelling, of 
Hegel, or particularly of Berkeley. Though all these systems 
undoubtedly differ widely from each other in detail, yet they 
have this in common among themselves and with Mrs. Eddy 
and the followers of the New Thought movement, that their 
world is one of ideas. 

There can be no question about this relationship. It can- 
not, indeed, be proved that Mrs. Eddy directly drew from any 
of these sources. In fact, the contrary seems to be more likely. 
It may, nevertheless, be stated with confidence that she came in- 
directly under their influence. About that time Ralph Waldo 
Emerson (1803-1882) was making Concord, Massachusetts, the 
Mecca whither flocked many of the staunchest supporters of a 
mystical, idealistical and pantheistical naturalism. These 
formed between themselves a close group of transcendentalists, 
whose influence made itself widely felt through their literary ac- 
tivities, whether in the writing of books or in the editing of 
magazines or in the publishing of newspaper articles. From 
1840 to 1844 Emerson and Margaret Fuller, "the most intel- 
lectual woman of her time in America," published the Dial, a 
quarterly magazine, devoted to the Transcendentalist move- 
ment. 

A woman of Mrs. Eddy's character, so fond of novelties and 
of the public gaze, could not but feel the reverberation, so to 
say, of these bold innovations. The very foundations on which 
her system rests are to a great extent the conclusions that these 
philosophers reached. In fact, the chief difference between 
them lies in this that Mrs. Eddy was not a philosopher at all, 
but accepted without criticism as the foundation of her prac- 
tical and religious system of thought the conclusions they tried 



Metaphysical Basis 69 

to establish on rational grounds. Mrs. Eddy's arbitrary method 
of giving new meanings to old terms renders her perhaps a de- 
gree more obscure and unintelligible than the philosophers, 
but, on the whole, it is condemnation enough to say that with 
them all she completely discounts the testimony of the senses, 
thus opening the way to an arbitrary subjectivism. 

The necessities of her position as an inspired messenger of 
God forced Mrs. Eddy to disclaim any connection with con- 
temporary idealism. The New Thought writers, on the other 
hand, from W. F. Evans downward, gladly admit this kinship 
on their behalf. They almost look upon Emerson as a prophet 
of their own. His essay on Brahma or the Over-Soul might well 
be cited in New Thought literature as an introduction to the 
whole movement. In charming language Emerson extols what 
Mrs. Eddy tries laboriously to preach in uncouth accents. To 
show how deeply the modern mind-movements have drunk from 
the waters of New England Transcendentalism, the following 
lengthy extracts from Emerson's Over-Soul will here be given 
without comment. 

"Man is a stream whose source is hidden. . . . Always 
our being is descending into us from we know not whence. 
The most exact calculator has no prescience that somewhat 
incalculable may not balk the very next moment. I am con- 
strained every moment to acknowledge a higher origin for 
events than the will I call mine. ... As with events, so it 
is with thoughts. When I watch that flowing river which, 
out of regions I see not, pours for a season its streams into 
me, — I see that I am a pensioner — not a cause, but a sur- 
prised spectator of this ethereal water; that I desire and 
look up, and put myself in the attitude of reception, but from 
some alien energy the visions come." 1 

"We live in succession, in division, in parts, in particles. 
Meantime within man is the soul of the whole ; the wise silence ; 
the universal beauty to which every part and particle is 
equally related; the eternal ONE. And this deep power in 
which we exist and whose beatitude is all accessible to us, 
is not only self-sufficing and perfect in every hour, but the 
act of seeing and the thing seen, the seer and the spectacle, 

1 Emerson's Essays, First Series (Chicago), p. 254. 



70 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

the subject and the object are one. We see the world piece 
by piece, as the sun, the moon, the animal, the tree; but the 
whole of which these are the shining parts, is the soul." * 

"A wise old proverb says, 'God comes to us without bell' : 
that is, as there is no screen or ceiling between our heads and 
the infinite heavens, so is there no bar or wall in the sovl 
where man, the effect, ceases, and God, the cause, begins. 
The walls are taken away. We lie open on one side to the 
deeps of spiritual nature, to all the attributes of God. . . . 
The soul circumscribeth all things. As I have said it con- 
tradicts ail experience. . . . Some thoughts always find us 
young and keep us so. . . . The soul looketh steadily for- 
ward, creating a world always before her, and leaving worlds 
always behind her. She has no dates, nor rites, nor persons, 
nor specialties, nor men. The soul knows only the soul. All 
else is idle weeds for her wearing." 2 

"Ineffable is the union of man and God in every act of 
the soul. The simplest person, who in his integrity worships 
God, becomes God ; yet forever and ever the influx of this 
better and universal self is new and unsearchable. . . . When 
we have broken our god of tradition and ceased from our 
god of rhetoric, then may God fire the heart with his pres- 
ence. It is the doubling of the heart itself, nay, the infinite 
enlargement of the heart with a power of growth to a new 
infinity on every side." 3 
We are now enabled to give a more connected account of 
Christian Science philosophy. Its often repeated statements 
that matter is nothing, is unreal, unactual, even non-existent, 
could be paralleled by an equally formidable array of testi- 
monies to the effect that matter, though by no means real in 
the Eddian sense of the word, is quite real in its ordinary 
sense. Occasionally Mrs. Eddy herself forgets the role she is 
playing and applies the word real to such unrealities as sin, 
sickness and death. "Sin, sickness and death," she says, "are 
the vague realities of human conclusions. To material sense 
the unreal is the real until this sense is corrected by Christian 
Science." 4 
1 Emerson : op. cit., p. 255. 

* Ibid., p. 257-260. 
•Ibid., p. 277. 

* Science and Health, p. 297. 



Metaphysical Basis 71 

Mrs. Eddy's ideal world — and this applies with equal force 
to New Thought — in spite of all assertions to the contrary, is 
not a world of fancy and fiction. It is a world in which "things 
are thoughts, and thoughts are things." Thus understood, this 
ideal world is not without grandeur: taken in the abstract, 
it is rather an improvement on some other idealistic concep- 
tions of the world. For the Mind that thinks such splendid 
thoughts as the world, nature, the universe, man himself in- 
cluded, is, after all, the Divine Mind. That this truth is in- 
dissolubly linked with the grossest errors, accompanied with 
a denial of the trustworthiness of the senses and the materiality 
of matter; that, at least implicitly, it holds these thoughts to 
be the necessary operations of the divine Mind ; that it ex- 
plicitly denies secondary causes and secondary causality, these 
are so many flaws, very serious in themselves, and sufficient 
to wreck the whole system; yet they do not detract from that 
grand and true conception of God as the author of all that is. 
Herein lies one of the reasons why so many intelligent men, in 
spite of all the shortcomings of this new religion, and in spite 
of all opposition to it, still continue to proclaim themselves 
convinced and loyal Christian Scientists. 

Others are attracted by the mystical element which pervades 
its teaching. Taken in its pragmatical sense as a value judg- 
ment, the unreality of matter, that means its fleetiness, it» un- 
stable and transitory character, its lack of intrinsic and perma- 
nent value, strongly appealed to many a Catholic saint to whom 
the visible world became more and more unreal as he grew more 
and more in the love of God. Yet what a difference in attitude 
between these men who forsook the world to serve God, and 
Mrs. Eddy who claimed to serve God and who denied the reality 
of matter, the more surely to acquire the material goods and 
comforts of this world ! There is no better criterion of sin- 
cerity of belief than practice. 

Before proceeding to another subject, let us briefly sum up 
the false conclusions to which Mrs. Eddy's false premises have 
led her. These are as follows: Since God alone is real, the 
world, plants, animals, man are one and all His ideas. These 
individualized ideas have no real activity of their own, but their 



72 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

whole seeming activity is directly from God. 1 God's ideas are 
as necessary as Himself. This identification is so complete 
that Mrs. Eddy finds herself compelled to speak of man, not 
only as immortal, but as eternal; of his birth and death as 
unreal, as mere phenomena and illusions ; of his waxing old as a 
fiction ; of his body and senses as errors ; of his needs and wants 
as mere beliefs. It is to these beliefs that we must now turn 
our attention. 

1 It may not be out of place to recall here that Malebranche (1638-1715) 
and other Catholic philosophers have held similar views. 






CHAPTER V 

BELIEF, FAITH, UNDERSTANDING 

If Mrs. Eddy's metaphysics are difficult, her psychology 
is impossible. It is only by willfully closing her eyes to evidence 
that stares her everywhere in the face, that she can propound 
the views that underlie all her teaching. If we believe, with 
Mrs. Eddy, that there is only one Mind, how account for the 
fact of the many contradictory ideas that are current? If with 
her we deny the existence of matter, how can we account even 
for the mere concept of matter in general and of numberless 
material objects? If all things that in our foolish ignorance we 
held to be real, are in fact unreal, how can we account for the 
belief in their reality? For surely, if matter is an unreality, 
then, of all mysteries the belief in matter is the most mysterious. 
The common sense of mankind will rightly consider these ques- 
tions an acid test which will prove or disprove Mrs. Eddy's 
system. If she cannot satisfy us on the origin and nature of 
this universal belief in matter, her metaphysics must go to 
pieces on this rock of truth. 

Mrs. Eddy distinguishes, obscurely enough, between three 
sorts of mental acts which she christens belief, faith and un- 
derstanding. A knowledge of these is, to say the least, as 
necessary for a proper evaluation of Christian Science as is the 
doctrine concerning the All-ness of God. The fact that this 
inquiry will lead into subtle, and perhaps unintelligible dis- 
tinctions, into a region where Mrs. Eddy's own mind is be- 
muddled, must not stop us from attempting it. The funda- 
mental discrimination between these three concepts in Mrs. 
Eddy's mind is this, that understanding or science is the highest 
possible knowledge, the only one that has a right to live, while 
faith is an intermediary state of mind, hard to describe as it 
seems to partake of both belief and understanding, and belief 

73 



74 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

is always an error. We shall begin our investigation with the 
latter. 



Mrs. Eddy, despite a wealth of synonyms that she employs, 
nowhere clearly defines what she means by belief. And how 
could she, seeing that belief is something negative, an error, 
an illusion, an unreality, a nothing? Scholastics used to dis- 
tinguish between the mere absence of things (absentia rei) and 
the absentia or privatio rei debitae, the absence of things that 
should be present, that means defects. For Mrs. Eddy belief is 
essentially a defect which somehow exists somewhere. It is not, 
as one might be inclined to infer, a merely subjective disposition 
— though it is essentially this ; it is not a mere discrepancy be- 
tween subjective mind and objective reality — though it is also 
this; but it is in some way objective, creating for itself in some 
mysterious manner a whole world of evil, which, nevertheless, 
has no existence outside this realm of belief. 

For Mrs. Eddy every belief is error. The word has an 
absoluteW odious significance and can no longer be employed 
to express intellectual conviction, or intellectual surmise; it 
must be used only to express that which is not so in reality. 
Now, as according to Mrs. Eddy the whole material world is 
not so, the whole world is the object, yea, the creation of 
belief. Among this stock of false beliefs that exist somehow in 
the world, we may mention the belief in matter, or the mate- 
riality of the universe; the belief in the laws of nature; the 
belief in the existence of our own bodies ; the belief in the 
trustworthiness, nay, the existence of our senses ; the belief in 
the reality of sickness ; the belief in the reality of sin ; the 
belief in the reality of death ; the belief in the necessity of drugs 
and the necessity of h} T giene ; the belief in the reality of evil and 
misery of all kinds, of poverty and pain, of poison and de- 
structive physical powers ; the belief even in the existence and 
separate powers of created minds ; the belief also in the necessity 
of food and drink for the sustenance of life; the belief of men 
being born in time, growing up as children, increasing in size 
with age, declining with the advancing years and finally, being 



Belief, Faith, Understanding 75 

subject to the inevitable decree of death: all these beliefs are 
so many falsehoods and errors of mortal mind, of which the 
Christian Scientist must rid himself. 

Another group of beliefs, much less extensive, but hardly 
less comprehensive and sweeping than the former, springs from 
the first one of Mrs. Eddy's great metaphysical principles, 
namely that God is All-in-all. This group of errors is char- 
acterized especially by the belief in the existence of minds many, 
and souls many, with faculties and powers of their own, this, 
in Mrs. Eddy's philosophy, a most pernicious heresy, derogat- 
ing greatly from the supreme and absolute oneness of divine 
Mind. 

A third group of erroneous beliefs seems to have its origin 
in that unaccountably strange experience that bodies which 
have no real existence, nevertheless, are diseased or disabled, 
and make man feel rather uncomfortable at times. Little 
"camels" these, which a good Christian Scientist is expected to 
swallow without wincing ! 

For all these false beliefs are easily dismissed by the supreme 
and overpowering conviction that God, being Good and Mind, 
is All-in-all; that consequently there can be no matter; there 
can be no individual created mind, and, seeing that God is su- 
premely good, there can be no evil. There can be no sickness, 
for a variety of reasons : on the one hand, the goodness of 
God cannot create what is evil; but sickness is evil; conse- 
quently, there cannot be any sickness ; in the second place, sick- 
ness is a bodily state; but there is no human body that could 
be sick and mind cannot be sick, consequently there is no sick- 
ness. Similarly, there is no sin, since God, Who is All-in-all and 
the author of all things, cannot sin; there is no death, since 
death is something evil, and, besides, life cannot die; there is 
no need of food or drink or raiment, since these are for the 
benefit of a body that has no real existence. This is the 
lesson that we have to learn before we can share in the inesti- 
mable blessings of Christian Science. 

Such is that logic of a Christian Scientist of which Mrs. 
Eddy boasts that it is "as harmonious as the reasoning of an 
accurately stated syllogism or of a properly computed sum in 



76 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

arithmetic." * Granting the premises, the process of reasoning 
is, indeed, logical enough. But there is in logic something else 
besides mere reasoning. It teaches certain lines of argument 
which will help the sincere inquirer to detect error and reach 
the truth. One of these arguments is called reductio ad ab- 
surdum. If by logically following your premises you reach 
conclusions that are manifestly absurd, it is time to face about 
and examine anew your premises, for undoubtedly there is some 
hidden error lurking in them. If ever, this is a case whert the 
reductio ad absurdum finds its fullest exemplification. 

II. MORTAL MIND 

Mrs. Eddy herself felt the incongruity of allowing these 
false beliefs to hang, as it were, in the air. As they are false, 
they cannot possibly be in the Mind of God ; and as in reality, 
so Mrs. Eddy teaches, there are no created minds, these be- 
liefs must be acts without an actor, deeds without any one to 
do them. To overcome this anomaly, Mrs. Eddy introduces a 
deum ex machina, the so-called mortal mind, whose nature and 
origin no person on earth, not even Mrs. Eddy herself, could 
explain. 

Mrs. Eddy calls this term mortal mvnd "a solecism in 
language," and admits that it "involves an improper use of the 
word mind" 2 You may, if you prefer, choose other names 
and call it, for instance, hypnotism or animal magnetism ; for 
Mrs. Eddy is no puritan on close and exact definitions. In 
fact, the vaguer they are, the better they suit: you will get 
along much better by not being too precise. "As used in Chris- 
tian Science," Mrs. Eddy tells us, "animal magnetism or hyp- 
notism is the specific term for error, or mortal mind. It is the 
false belief that mind is in matter, and both evil and good; 
that evil is as real as goodness and more powerful. This belief 
has not one quality of Truth or good." 3 

At best, therefore, this term mortal mind is a concession 
to common usage. For, we are told, "usage classes both evil 

1 Science and Health, p. 129. 

2 Ibid., p. 114. 

3 Ibid., p. 103. 



Belief, Faith, Understanding 77 

and good together as mind; therefore, to be understood, the 
author calls sick and sinful humanity mortal mind, meaning 
by this term the flesh, opposed to Spirit, the human mind, and 
evil, in contradistinction to the divine Mind, or Truth and 
good." x Not only does Mrs. Eddy concede that mortal mind is 
a "spiritually unscientific definition."— she should rather say 
a conglomeration of contradictories — but she finally grants 
that "this so-called mind is a myth." 2 "Indeed," Mrs. Eddy 
says, "if a better word or phrase could be suggested, it would 
be used; but in expressing the new tongue, we must sometimes 
recur to the old and imperfect, and the new wine of the Spirit 
has to be poured into the old bottles of the letter." 3 

So much for the term itself; but how about its meaning? 
From the citations just made we learn that it is "sick and sin- 
ful humanity," "the flesh," "the human mind" and "evil." These 
are intelligible concepts, even if we might justifiably quarrel 
about the juxtaposition of the flesh, the human mind and evil 
as synonymous expressions. These, I say, are intelligible con- 
cepts, as long as we take these words in their ordinary meaning; 
but in Mrs. Eddy's theories all these things are unrealities, not 
only in the sense that they are opposed to the Supreme Reality 
of God, but even in the sense that they can have no existence 
whatever. Eor God being the only Reality, the Cause of all 
things, and supremely good, there can be no place anywhere 
for such concepts as those just described. Hence Mrs. Eddy's 
"harmonious logic," again, is not at fault when she tells us at 
last that "as Mind is immortal, the phrase mortal mind implies 
something untrue and, therefore, unreal; and as the phrase is 
used in teaching Christian Science, it is meant to denote some- 
thing which has no real existence." 4 

As mortal mind is not mind at all, 5 and as it cannot be 
matter long since ruled out of court, but as it must be some- 
thing — else why should Mrs. Eddy labor so hard to make plain 
what it means — we reach at last the sublime conclusion that it 

1 Science and Health, p. 114. 

2 Ibid., p. 152. 

3 Ibid., p. 114. 
i Ibid., p. 114. 

5 "What is termed mortal mind, or carnal mind — erring, sinning and 
dependent on matter for manifestation and life — is not Mind." Ibid., p. 311. 



78 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

is "something which has no real existence," that means, some- 
thing which is nothing, and nothing which is something. 

In other words, Mrs. Eddy is unable to get out of the en- 
tanglements into which her system has led her! 

III. THE WORKS OF MORTAL MIND, SO-CALLED 

And yet, how infinitely powerful is this nothing which is 
something! In the first place — mirabile dictu — though itself 
"is based on the evidence of physical senses which makes minds 
many," yet in turn all the bodily organisms, and therefore all 
the physical senses, are created by it : "My discovery that err- 
ing, mortal, misnamed mind produces all the organisms of the 
mortal body, set my thoughts to work in new channels and 
led up to my demonstration of the proposition that Mind is all, 
and matter is naught, as the leading factor in Mind-science." * 
This in spite of the fact that all causation is reserved to the 
one primal cause, God : "There is but one primal cause. There- 
fore there can be no effect from any other cause; and there 
can be no reality in aught which proceeds not from this great 
and only cause. Sin, sickness, disease, and death belong not 
to the Science of Being. They are the errors which presuppose 
the absence of Truth." 2 Consequently, "matter which takes 
divine power into its own hands and claims to be a creator, 
is a fiction, in which paganism is so sanctioned by society that 
mankind has caught its moral contagion." 3 

This fiction of a mortal mind, strange as it may sound, is a 
"Pandora box from which many evils have gone forth, espe- 
cially despair." From it proceed all diseases, all accidents, 
all sins, all vices, all mental anxieties, death, aging, weariness 
and worry. In spite of its unreality, there proceeds from it also 
that Red Dragon, called Malicious Animal Magnetism, to which, 
owing to its prominence in Scientism, we have to consecrate a 
special chapter. Stranger still, from it also proceeds a certain 
intangible, mystical something which creates an unhealthy at- 
mosphere, against which even Christian Science is frequently 
powerless. For 

1 Science and Health, pp. 108 and 114. 
'Ibid., p. 207. 
*Ibid., p. 171. 



Belief, Faith, Understanding 79 

"the universal belief in physics weighs against the high and 
mighty truths of Christian metaphysics. This erroneous 
general belief — which sustains medicine and produces all 
medical results — works against Christian Science; and the 
percentage of power on the side of this Science (that is, 
Christian Science) must mightily outweigh the power of 
popular belief, m order to heal a smgle case of disease." x 

Here is how Mrs. Eddy explains this strange power of 
mortal mind: 

"Disease arises, like other mental conditions, from asso- 
ciation. Since it is a law of mortal mind that certain dis- 
eases should be regarded as contagious, this law obtains 
credit through association, — calling up the fear that creates 
the image of disease, and its consequent manifestation in the 
body." 2 

From this it follows that a mother's fears may be her child's 
disease. The mere thought of sickness may produce it, not 
merely in the one that harbors this dangerous thought, but in 
others who are innocent of it : 

"If a child is exposed to contagion or infection, the 
mother is frightened and says, 'My child will be sick.' The 
law of mortal mind, and her own fears govern her child more 
than the child's mind governs itself, and produce the very re- 
sults which might have been prevented through the opposite 
understanding." 2 

Such is the strange influence of this fiction of a mind that 
has no real existence. 



IV. MORTAL MIND, MIND-CURES AND MEDICINE 

To us it seems that we are dangerously near treading on 
the forbidden ground of the reality of human minds, and dan- 
gerously near the theories of mind-healers and thought-curists, 
whose theories and practices Mrs. Eddy so unsparingly chas- 
tizes. To all appearances Mrs. Eddy's mortal mind and the 
human mind of other psychotherapists are identical, endowed 

1 Science and Health, p. 155. 
9 Ibid., p. 154. 



80 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

with exactly the same properties and powers, only that — to 
emphasize this difference once more — mortal mind is overbur- 
dened with an indefinite number of very erroneous and mischiev- 
ous beliefs, which human mmd will look upon as very close ap- 
proximations to such truths as are within its reach. 

As if to confirm this suspicion, Mrs. Eddy refrains from 
denying all sphere of influence to mortal mind, not only for 
evil, what we should expect in her system, but even for good. 
Any good results that drugs may secure, are not to be looked 
upon as effects of the drug, but of mortal mind and its false 
belief in their efficacy. An enlightening paragraph of Science 
and Health bears precisely on this point : 

"Before this book was published," writes Mrs. Eddy, 
"other books were in circulation which discussed mental medi- 
cine and mind-cure, operating through the power of the 
earth's magnetic currents to regulate life and health. Such 
theories and systems of so-called mind-cures which have 
sprung up since are as material as the prevailing systems 
of medicine. They have their birth in mortal mind which 
puts forth a human conception in the name of Science, to 
match the divine Science of immortal Mind, even as the necro- 
mancers of Egypt strove to emulate the wonders wrought by 
Moses. Such theories have no relationship with Christian 
Science which rests on the conception of God as all Life, sub- 
stance and intelligence, and excludes the human mind as a 
spiritual factor in the healing work. . . . Erroneous mental 
practice may seem for a time to benefit the sick, but the re- 
covery is not permanent. This is because erroneous methods 
act on and through the material stratum of the human mind, 
called brain, which is but a mortal consolidation of material 
mentality and its suppositional activities. A patient under 
the influence of mortal mind is healed only by removing the 
influence on him of this mind, by emptying his thought of 
the false stimulus and reaction of will-power and filling it 
with the divine energies of Truth." * 

Again Mrs. Eddy says : 

"Human belief is an autocrat, though not deserving its 
power. It says to mortals, 'You are wretched' and they be- 
1 Science and Health, pp. 185-186. 






Belief, Faith, Understanding 81 

come so ; and nothing can change this state until the belief 
changes. Human belief says, 'You are happy' and mortals 
are so ; and no circumstances can alter the situation until the 
belief on this subject changes." x 

But if mortal mind, mortal belief can relieve suffering, why 
not be satisfied with this ? Why is it necessary to embrace the 
Christian Science Creed and code of laws? Would it not be 
just as well to let human mind perform the cure without having 
recourse to the transcendent help of the eternal Mind? These 
questions a true Christian Scientist will answer with an em- 
phatic no. For faith-cures are no real cures, but mere make- 
shifts ; they are more than useless ; for while they do not cure 
permanently, they but fasten error on the human mind, and it 
is in any case better to be suffering until divine Science estab- 
lishes the Truth than to be perfectly well, and yet hold the 
erroneous belief that matter is able to suffer. Such is the 
drift of Mrs. Eddy's teaching; such, the faith of a Christian 
Scientist. Mrs. Eddy says on this point: 

"The medicine of Science is divine Mind, and dishonesty, 
sensuality, falsehood, revenge, malice are animal propensities 
and by no means the mental qualities which heal the sick. 
The hypnotizer employs one error to destroy another. If 
he heals sickness through a belief, and a belief originally 
caused the sickness, it is a case of the greater error over- 
coming the lesser. This greater error thereafter occupies 
the ground, leaving the cjase worse than before it was 
grasped by the stronger error." 2 

And on the contrary : 

"Science not only reveals the origin of all disease as 
wholly mental, but it also declares that all disease is cured 
by divine Mind. There can be no healing except by this 
Mind, however much we trust a drug or any other means 
toward which human faith or endeavor is directed. It is 
mortal mind, not matter, which brings to the sick whatever 
good they may seem to receive from drugs. But the sick 
are never really healed, except by means of the divine power. 

1 Science and Health, pp. 296-297. 

2 Ibid., p. 104. 



82 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

It is only the action of Truth, Life, and Love that can give 
harmony." x 

Hence the final conclusion that "Whatever teaches men to 
have other laws, and acknowledge other power than the divine 
Mind, is anti-Christian. The good that a poisonous drug seems 
to do is evil, for it robs man of reliance upon God, omnipotent 
Mind, and according to belief poisons the human system." 
Hence also "discomfort under error is preferable to comfort. 
In no instance is the effect of animal magnetism, recently called 
hypnotism, other than the effect of illusion. Any seeming bene- 
fit derived therefrom is proportional only to one's faith in 
esoteric magic." 2 

The reader must have noticed the keen anxiety of Mrs. 
Eddy to draw a clear distinction between her own system of 
healing and that of others. This attitude of mind, unfor- 
tunate^ for her, is not proper to her; it is characteristic of 
mind-healers generally, and is evidently an essential part of 
the trade. Each one has the only genuine brand of mind- 
healing, leaving all the others out in the cold as mere quacks 
and charlatans. Mrs. Eddy calls hers divine Science, makes 
it a real religious creed and stigmatizes all the other systems 
as essentially wrong and harmful. Yet, as we shall see, the 
difference is chiefly in the name; the methods and means em- 
ployed are largely identical; and the effects in one case are 
no more striking than in the others. Hers is the same position 
as that taken by a famous mind-healer with whom Mr. Buckley 
relates the following personal experience : 

"There is an old proverb," he says, "that 'when rogues 
fall out, honest men get their dues.' It also is true that when 
quacks fall to discrediting each other, principles may be 
discovered. 

"In 1865 there came to Detroit, Michigan, a pupil of Dr. 
Newton, Brj'ant by name, who performed cures as success- 
fully as Newton himself. In company with Dr. J. P. Scott, 
a Presbyterian minister there, I visited Dr. Bryant and saw 
him operate upon a score or more of patients (one of whom 
had been supposed to be doomed to a speedy death with ovar- 

1 Science and Health, p. 169. 
3 Ibid., p. 101. 



Belief, Faith, Understanding 83 

ian tumor; Dr. Bryant removed the tumor, after which she 
lived some months — and died of debility). To comprehend 
his method fully, I was operated on for dyspepsia. 

"About a year later, returning from New Orleans to Mem- 
phis, Tennessee, I found on board the steamer Dr. Newton, 
who had just come from Havana. He told me that in one 
day eight hundred persons had applied to him in that city. 
. . . For several hours a day during four days I conversed 
with him concerning his career and principles. My conviction 
is that he believed in himself, and also that he would use 
any means to accomplish his ends. He would glide from 
fanaticism into hypocrisy, then into fanaticism, and from 
that into common sense with the rapidity of thought. . . . 
When I mentioned having seen 'Dr.' Bryant, Dr. Newton in- 
stantly denounced him as an 'unmitigated fraud who had no 
genuine healing power.' He claimed that he had cured Bry- 
ant of a malignant disease with which he found him suffering 
in a hospital; that Bryant had acted as his amanuensis for 
some time, and then left him, and had since been acting in 
opposition to him. Knowing that the manipulations by Bry- 
ant had been followed by some wonderful results in Detroit, 
I said to Dr. Newton : 

" 'If Bryant be an unmitigated fraud, how do you account 
for his cures?' 'Oh,' said the doctor, 'they are caused by 
the faith of the people and the concentration of their minds 
upon his operations, with the expectation of being cured. 
Now (said he) none would go to see Bryant unless they had 
some faith that he might cure them, and when he begins his 
operations with great positiveness of manner, and they see 
the crutches he has, and hear the people testify that they 
have been cured, it produces a tremendous influence upon 
them ; and then he gets them started in the way of exercising, 
and they do a good many things they thought they could 
not do ; their appetites and spirits revive, and if toning them 
up can possibly reduce the diseased tendency, many of them 
will get well.' 

"Said I, 'Doctor, pardon me, is not that a correct ac- 
count of the manner in which you perform your wonderful 
works?' 'Oh, no,' said he, 'the difference between a genuine 
healer and a quack like Bryant is as wide as the poles.* " x 
1 Buckley: Faith-Healing, Christian Science and Kindred Phenomena 
(New York, 1892), pp. 33-35. 



84 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

How very much like the attitude Mrs. Eddy took towards 
all other systems of healing. There can positively be but one 
brand of mind-healing, and that the brand each one practices 
in opposition to every one else. But enough of mortal belief; 
we shall now proceed to discuss Mrs. Eddy's concept of faith 
and understanding, as distinguished from mere belief. 

V. FAITH AND UNDERSTANDING 

Mrs. Eddy gives us a summary description of the trans- 
formation of mortal mind into full understanding, a trans- 
formation which she misnames Scientific translation of mortal 
mind. It contains three stages or degrees and leads from de- 
pravity through the disappearance of false beliefs into full 
understanding. The first stage is called physical, the second 
moral and the last spiritual. Here is the exact reproduction 
of this so-called scientific description : 

SCIENTIFIC TRANSLATION OF MORTAL MIND 

First degree: Depravity 
Physical. Evil beliefs, passions and appetites, fear, de- 
praved will, pride, envy, deceit, hatred, revenge, sin, sick- 
ness, disease, death. (All this in the margin is styled Un- 
reality.) 

Second Degree: Evil beliefs disappearing 
Moral. Humanity, honest}', affection, compassion, hope, 
faith, meekness, temperance. (The marginal gloss calls 
these transitional qualities. As mortal mind is evil, it 
may be asked whether these transitional qualities also must 
be considered evil. No direct answer is given.) 
Third Degree: Understanding 
Spiritual. Wisdom, purity, spiritual understanding, spir- 
itual power, love, health, holiness. (The marginal gloss 
reads Reality. The explanation that follows says: "In 
the third degree mortal mind disappears; and man as 
God's image appears." x 
The second degree is identical with what Mrs. Eddy in 
other places calls faith. As a curative factor, faith stands a 
degree higher than belief. Of course, the words are often taken 
to be synonymous, but, in fact, the word faith is of wider im- 
1 Science and Health, p. 115. 



Belief, Faith, Understanding 85 

port. It may mean belief ; it may mean trustfulness ; it may 
mean trustworthiness. If it means mere belief, it is, in Mrs. 
Eddy's words, "as a pendulum swinging between nothing and 
something, having no fixity"; if it means trustfulness, it signi- 
fies that he who has faith entrusts his welfare to others, a con- 
dition which Mrs. Eddy characterizes as "the helplessness of 
a blind faith"; but if it is the highest kind of faith, a faith 
which should not be called faith, but understanding, it is that 
disposition which "understands divine Love and how to work 
out one's own salvation with fear and trembling." 1 In its 
specific sense as intermediary between belief and understanding, 
faith is thus described : 

"Faith is higher and more spiritual than belief. It is a 
chrysalis state of human thought, wherein spiritual evidence, 
contradicting the testimony of material senses, begins to ap- 
pear, and Truth, the ever-present, is becoming understood. 
Human thoughts have their degrees of comparison. Some 
thoughts are better than others. A belief in Truth is better 
than a belief in error, but no human opinions are founded 
on the divine rock. They can be shaken; and until belief 
becomes faith, and faith becomes spiritual understanding, 
human thought has little relation to the actual or divine. 

"A belief fulfills its own illusive conditions. Sickness, 
sin and death are the vague realities of human conclusions. 
Life, Truth and Love are the realities of divine Science, which 
dawn in faith, and glow full-orbed in spiritual understand- 
ing. As a cloud hides the sun it cannot extinguish, so false 
belief silences for a while the voice of immutable harmony ; 
but it cannot destroy Science armed with faith, hope and 
fruition." 2 

From this it appears that understanding is the goal of a 
Scientist's fervent aspirations. It is the promised land of 
plenty, the Paradise of spiritual pleasures, the haven of health 
and happiness. Hence its supreme importance. 

"It is essential to understand, instead of believe, what re- 
lates most nearly to the happiness of being. To seek Truth 
through belief in a human doctrine is not to understand the 

1 Science and Health, p. 23. 

2 Ibid., pp. 297-298. 



86 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

infinite. We must not seek the immutable and immortal 
through the finite, mutable, and mortal, and so depend upon 
belief instead of demonstration; for this is fatal to a knowl- 
edge of Science. The understanding of Truth gives real faith 
in it, and is better than all burnt-offerings." x 

I am not aware that Mrs. Eddy gives anywhere a clearer 
definition of what she means by science or understanding. At 
first sight it might appear to be an exceedingly simple matter: 
nothing but a firm conviction that God, All-in-all, is good, and 
that, consequently, evil in its triple variety of sin, sickness 
and death — others add poverty to this trinity — is unreal and in 
a manner non-existent. Yet, this simplicity is more apparent 
than real; for understanding has a negative, as well as a posi- 
tive function : it must destroy as well as build up. Its gigantic 
task consists in destroying all error, that means all belief : for 
"belief and understanding never mingle. The latter destroys 
the former." Consequently, "when we fully understand our re- 
lation to God, we can have no other mind but His, — no other 
Love, wisdom or Truth, no other sense of Life, and no con- 
sciousness of the existence of matter, or error." 2 

At this juncture Mrs. Eddy draws from her lively imagina- 
tion a pen picture of what this future struggle between under- 
standing and belief, or mortal mind, will be. A battle royal must 
be waged both in every individual and in the world at large, 
and this battle will be pathetically terrific. In the individual 
the process is one of mental fermentation during which old ideas 
must gradually give way to the new : 

"Mortal mind will vanish in a moral chemicalization. 
This mental fermentation has begun, and will continue until 
all errors of belief yield to understanding. Belief is change- 
able, but spiritual understanding is changeless. As this con- 
summation draws nearer, he who has shaped his course in ac- 
cordance with divine Science will endure unto the end. As ma- 
terial knowledge diminishes and spiritual understanding in- 
creases, real objects will be apprehended mentally instead of 
materially." 3 

1 Science and Health, p. 286. 
*Ibid., pp. 205, 276. 
*Ibid., p. 96. 



Belief, Faith, Understanding 87 

This personal, individual conflict will increase a million fold 
in the struggle for the emancipation of the whole race from 
the strangle-hold of belief. 

"This material world is even now becoming the arena for 
conflicting forces. On one side there will be discord and dis- 
may; on the other there will be Science and peace. In the 
breaking up of material beliefs, there will be famine and 
pestilence; want and woe, sin and sickness and death will 
assume new phases, and their nothingness will finally appear. 
These disturbances will continue until the end of error, 
when all discord will be swallowed up in spiritual Truth. . . . 
During this final conflict wicked minds will endeavor to find 
means whereby to accomplish more evil; but those who dis- 
cern Christian Science will hold crime in check. They will 
aid in the ejection of error. They will maintain law and 
order, and cheerfully await the certainty of ultimate per- 
fection." x 

Nor is there any escape from this mental purgation. Every 
man must pass through it, either in this life, or in the world to 
come. For 

"progress is born of experience. It is the ripening of mortal 
man, through which the mortal is dropped for the immortal. 
Either here or hereafter suffering or Science must destroy 
all illusions regarding life and mind, and regenerate material 
sense and self. The old man with his deeds must be put off. 
Nothing sensual or sinful is immortal. The death of a false 
material sense and of sin, not the death of organic matter, 
is what reveals man and Life, harmonious, real and eternal." 2 

The manner after which this purgation is to be made is 
briefly indicated in the following passage: 

"Belief produces the result of belief; and the penalties 
it affixes last as long as the belief, and are inseparable from 
it. The remedy consists in probing the trouble to the bottom, 
in finding, and casting out by denial, the error of belief which 
produces a moral disorder, never honoring it with the title of 
law, nor yielding obedience to it." 3 

I Science and Health, p. 96. 

II Ibid., p. 296. 

8 Ibid., p. 184. Cf . No and Yes, p. 27. "Surely the probation of mortals 
must go on after the change called death, that they may learn the definition 



88 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

The result of this purgative process is properly speaking 
understanding, or Science, or spiritual sense. This involves a 
complete readjustment of our mental attitude. We enter into 
new conscious relations. The world is no longer for us what 
it was and, on the other hand, God is now to us what He never 
was before. He has become an ever-present help in all our 
needs, mighty in subduing the ebullitions of mortal sense, thus 
destroying sin, sickness and death. 

"Spiritual sense, contradicting the material senses, in- 
volves intuition, hope, faith, understanding, fruition, reality. 
Material sense involves the belief that mind is in matter. 
This human belief, alternating between a sense of pleasure 
and pain, between hope and fear, between life and death, 
never reaches beyond the boundary of the mortal, or the 
unreal. When the real is attained which is announced by 
Science, joy is no longer a trembler, nor is hope a cheat. 
Spiritual ideas, like numbers and notes, start from Principle, 
and admit no materialistic beliefs concerning them. Spiritual 
ideas lead up to their divine origin, God, and to the spiritual 
senses." x 

In some of these passages the founder of Christian Science 
has borrowed the accent of the ancient inspired seers, and there 
is in her tone a glow of cheerful assurance which is not without 
effect on the minds of her followers. Such passages help to 
maintain the fiction of a new revelation, and to reconcile the 
Christian Scientist to the many open contradictions scattered 
throughout the book. Men love a certain amount of mysticism : 
it warms and cheers the dullness of everyday life, and if it adds 
no special burdens to man's duties, large circles of our popula- 
tion will welcome it. 

Mrs. Eddy has largely succeeded in supplying this need of 
the many unchurched, and of such among church members as 
do not find in their congregations anything equivalent to this 

of immortal being; or else their present mistakes would extinguish human 
existence. How long this false sense remains after the transition called 
death, no mortal knoweth. ... Of his intermediate conditions — the purify- 
ing processes and terrible revolutions necessary to effect this end — I am 
ignorant." 

1 Science and Health, p. 298. 



Belief, Faith, Understanding 89 

soft and easy mysticism. It would be idle to say that there is 
no truth at all in this. It may be only a half-truth, but this 
half-truth, coupled with other characters of Christian Science, 
helps to explain in part its success. In so far as this conception 
of the universe implies a habitual realization of the presence 
of God, it represents a distinct gain in the daily practice of 
religion. Were it not for the many and serious errors inex- 
tricably bound up with Mrs. Eddy's pantheism, we could sin- 
cerely rejoice in this renovation of a practice constantly and 
urgently advocated by all Catholic spiritual writers. 

We cannot agree with the author when she declares that 
God cannot create matter, or that matter is essentially evil, 
or that sin, sickness and death are purely mental, either in 
their essential character or even only in their origin, or that 
they are merely material beliefs, or that mind can cure all 
disease ; but we cannot deny that the description of the world as 
divine ideas, even while falling far short of the true and full 
concept of Creation, at least embodies one of its essential ele- 
ments. While regretting the absence of the other element, 
namely that of a Divine Will freely enacting, so to say, the Di- 
vine idea, we do agree that God's creative act is not one which, 
having taken place once for all, leaves the world to itself and its 
laws. God continues, and will continue unto the end of time, to 
govern the world as Divine Providence, thus maintaining — we 
could almost say, continually creating — the world He has called 
into being. There is in God a Divine Life which is His very 
essence, inherent, immanent and immutable: of this we catch 
a glimpse, and only a glimpse, in the mystery of the Blessed 
Trinity; but beyond tins, there is in Him an activity that 
cannot be called necessary: of this we have a palpable proof 
in the existence of the world. Mrs. Eddy recognizes the former, 
and extends it beyond its limits, and rejects the latter. 

It is easy to recognize in Mrs. Eddy's errors the influence 
of that liberalizing movement in Protestant theology which, in 
the first half of the nineteenth century, transformed New Eng- 
land from the rigid ancient unorthodox "orthodoxy" of Calvin- 
ism into a stronghold of Unitarianism. The days of a Cotton 
Mather (1663-1728) and of a Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) 



90 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

were gone. Unitarianism had captured not only single individ- 
uals, but whole congregations, of which some had been among 
the strongest supporters of Calvinism. Harvard College was 
definitively aligned with this liberalizing, or, to speak more 
correctly, naturalizing current. This spirit Mrs. Eddy con- 
sciously and unconsciously inhaled, and incorporated into her 
religious system. From this source she obtained some of the 
arguments met with in her writings ; their doctrines are her 
doctrines, except in so far as they were incompatible with her 
discovery. 

Excess marks every one of Mrs. Eddy's utterances. She 
knew not how to keep the golden mean. We must reject, as con- 
trary to fact, her claim of the absolute One-ness of Mind. There 
are minds many, as there are beliefs many. There are created 
minds, as there is created matter. Mrs. Eddy's own exposition 
of the progress from mere belief, through faith, into under- 
standing is unintelligible except on the supposition that there 
are many minds. This is not to materialize mind, or to claim 
intelligence for matter, a belief which Mrs. Eddy gratuitously 
imputes to the theist. A future chapter will make this clearer ; 
meanwhile we must turn our attention to the subject of mali- 
cious animal magnetism, which occupied such a large space in 
the life of Mrs. Eddy. 



CHAPTER VI 

MALICIOUS ANIMAL, MAGNETISM 

New Thought being without official textbook or creed, 
there is no uniformity of teaching to be found among its ad- 
herents. Most of the doctrines, however, explained in the 
previous chapter are received by the great majority of them in 
substantially, if not absolutely, the same form. But when we 
come to what Mrs. Eddy has dubbed malicious animal mag- 
netism, the case is different ; both the name and the thing are 
Mrs. Eddy's invention and property. Whether all Christian 
Scientists follow the Leader into this field of her metaphysics, 
may be considered doubtful ; yet so closely interwoven with the 
whole fabric of Christian Science is this doctrine of mental mal- 
practice, that it is difficult to see how any one can reject it and 
still honestly call himself a loyal follower of Mrs. Eddy. 

The dogma of malicious animal magnetism has an interest- 
ing history. The expression animal magnetism came to Mrs. 
Eddy from Mesmer who, as we have seen, defended the existence, 
in man, of a fluid akin to natural magnetism and for that reason 
called animal magnetism. Mrs. Eddy, with her craving for 
the occult, her delight in the marvelous, and her pursuit of what 
was novel, became early in life interested in mesmerism. Her 
first acquaintance with it dates back to the Tilton days. There 
the Baker family-physician who looked after Mary Baker in her 
many nervous attacks was experimenting in this new-fangled 
science and found in his patient an interested and responsive 
subject. Animal magnetism continued to attract her until 
something more sensational, spiritism, came to supplant it. Mrs. 
Eddy not only visited professional spiritists, but she repeatedly 
acted, or pretended to act, as a medium — even after Quimby 
had given yet another direction to her thought. 1 

1 Milmine: History of Christian Science in McClure's Magazine, Vol. 
XXIX, p. 108. Mrs. Eddy at one time claimed "that, because of her 

91 



92 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

i 
Quimbyism itself was close enough to mesmerism to continue 

— without putting much faith in them — certain practices which 
originally purported to transmit the magnetic current. Mrs. 
Edcty, in her earlier days, treated in exactly the same manner. 
"She always instructed her students, after treating their pa- 
tients mentally, to rub their heads. In addition Mrs. Eddy 
would dip her hands in water and lay them over the stomach 
of the patient repeating, as she did this, the words 'Peace, be 
still.' " 1 

But now two events occurred which were to change this in- 
dulgent compromise into rabid hostility. One of her former 
students, Wallace W. Wright, who had gone to Knoxville, 
Tennessee, as a pioneer in Christian Science, soon "began to 
question the propriety of calling this treatment moral science 
instead of mesmerism," and returning East, he charged Mrs. 
Eddy publicly in the daily press with teaching, under a new 
name and at an exorbitant fee, nothing more original than 
mesmerism. Mrs. Eddy defended herself spiritedly, but the 
sting remained in her bosom. 2 About the same time (1872) 
Richard Kenned}', the young student, who had helped so much 
to make Mrs. Eddy's theories known and appreciated, left her, 
which angered Mrs. Eddy to such an extent "that she wished to 
repudiate him and his methods, and to do this, it was necessary 
to repudiate what she herself had taught." She now declared 
solemnly that Kennedy's treatment, the one which she had 
taught him and which had made her own success, was a per- 
nicious practice based on mesmerism 3 and had her students 
change their manuscripts to this effect by striking out the 
following passage: 

". . . and wetting your hand in water, rise and rub their 
head. This rubbing has no virtue; only as we believe and 

superior spiritual quality, and because of the purity of her life, she could 
only be controlled in the spirit world by one of the Apostles and by Jesus 
Christ." On another occasion she pretended to receive messages from her 
deceased brother Albert for Mrs. Crosby at whose home she was staying 
at the time. Ibid., Vol. XXVIII, p. 352. 

1 Milmine: op. cit., p. 94. 

2 Mr. W. W. Wright was a brother of Carroll D. Wright, at one time 
U. S. Commissioner of Labor. His attack was published in the Lynn Trans- 
script, Jan. 13, 1872, quoted in McClure's Magazine, Vol. XXIX, p. 107. 

3 Milmine: op. cit., in McClure's Magazine, Vol. XXIX, p. 113. 



Malicious Animal Magnetism 93 

others believe, we get nearer to them by contact, and now 
you would rub out a belief, and this belief is located in the 
brain. Therefore, as an M. D. lays a poultice where the 
pain is, so you lay your hands where the belief is to rub it 
forever out." - 1 

After thus putting the stigma of her disapproval on manipu- 
lation, as she called it, Mrs. Eddy found some difficulty in 
explaining away her own earlier practice. In 1876, in a booklet 
entitled The Science of Man, she pleaded ignorance : 

"When we commenced this science, we permitted stu- 
dents to manipulate the head, ignorant that it could do harm, 
or hinder the power of mind acting in an opposite direction, 
viz., while the hands were at work and the mind directing 
material action. We regret to say it was the sins of a young 
student that called our attention to this question for the 
first time and placed it in a new moral and physical aspect." 2 

Still later, emboldened by her success, she put the whole 
blame on the incapacity of her students : 

"My students at first practiced in slightly differing forms. 
Although / could heal mentally, without a sign save the im- 
mediate recovery of the sick, my students' patients, and 
people generally, called for a sign — a material evidence 
wherewith to satisfy the sick that something was being done 
for them ; and I said 'suffer it to be now,' for thus saith our 
Master. Experience, however, taught me the impossibility 
of demonstrating the Science of metaphysical healing by any 
outward form of practice." 3 

Fastening the note of infamy on her followers, with whom 
for some reason or other she grew dissatisfied, by branding 
them as malpractitioners or mesmerists was not for Mrs. Eddy 
as innocuous a diversion as it might seem. Like a boomerang, 
this weapon rebounded and hit her that handled it with terrific 
force. She unwittingly educated herself into a firm belief in 
the possibility of the crimes which she imputed and into the 
conviction that they were actually being attempted against 

1 Cf. facsimile of Mr. Spofford's copy in McClure's Magazine, ibid., p. 109. 

2 Milmine: op. cit., p. 95. 

8 Eddy: Miscellaneous Writings, p. 380. 



94 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

her, with untold mental anguish to herself. From the day that 
she put the ban on manipulation till Science and Health ap- 
peared, three years elapsed during which her belief in animal 
magnetism sufficiently evolved to have an entire chapter devoted 
to it. The full bearing of her teaching on this point can be 
gauged from the following quotation : 

"In coming years," she writes, "the person or mind that 
hates his neighbor will have no need to traverse his fields to 
destroy his flocks and herds and spoil his vines, or to enter 
his house to demoralize his household. For the evil mind 
will do this through mesmerism, and not in propria per- 
sonae (?) be seen committing the deed. Unless this terrible 
hour be met and restrained by Science [Christian Science, of 
course], mesmerism, that scourge of man, will leave nothing 
sacred when mind begins to act under direction of conscious 
power." x 

Later on she claimed divine warrant for inserting this chap- 
ter on Animal Magnetism into her book. 

"My reluctance," she says, "to give the public in my first 
edition of Science and Health the chapter on animal magne- 
tism, and the divine purpose that this should be done, may 
have an interest for the reader and will be seen in the follow- 
ing circumstances. I had finished that edition as far as that 
chapter, when the printer informed me that he could not go 
on with my work. I had already paid him seven hundred 
dollars and yet he stopped my work. All efforts to persuade 
him to finish my book were in vain. After months had passed, 
I yielded to a constant conviction that I must insert in my 
last chapter a partial history of what I had already 
observed of mental malpractice. Accordingly I set to work, 
contrary to my inclination, to fulfil this painful task, and 
finished my copy for the book. As it afterwards appeared, 
although I had not thought of such a result, my printer re- 
sumed his work at the same time; finished printing the copy 
he had on hand, and then started for Lynn to see me. The 
afternoon that he left Boston for Lynn, I started for Boston 
with my finished copy. We met at the Eastern depot in 
Lynn and were both surprised — I, to learn that he had 

1 Science and Health (1st ed.), p. 123, quoted in McClure's Magazine, 
Vol. XXIX, p. 338. 



Malicious Animal Magnetism 95 

printed all the copy on hand and had come to tell me he 
wanted more — he, to find me en route for Boston to give him 
the closing chapter of my first edition of Scienae and 
Health," 1 
In Mrs. Eddy's thought Kennedy was indissolubly asso- 
ciated with this conception of life. Often in her lectures she 
would wander away from her subject and would devote half 
the lesson to bitter invective against the treacherous Kennedy. 
He pursued her, she would tell them 'as a hound pursues its 
prey' and unloaded on her the diseases of the patients he 
cured. To him she began to attribute not only her illnesses, but 
all her vexations and misfortunes, any lack of success in her 
ventures and any difficulties with her students. The following 
apostrophe to be read in the 1881 edition of Science and Health 
applies to him: 

"The Nero of to-day," she writes, "regaling himself 
through a mental method with the tortures of individuals, is 
repeating history, and will fall upon his own sword, and it 
shall pierce him through. Let him remember this, when, in 
the dark recesses of thought, he is robbing, committing adul- 
tery, and killing; when he is attempting to turn friend away 
from friend, ruthlessly stabbing the quivering heart; when 
he is clipping the thread of life, and giving to the grave 
youth and its rainbow hues ; when he is turning back the re 1 - 
viving sufferer to her bed of pain, clouding her first morning 
after years of night ; and the Nemesis of that hour shall 
point to the tyrant's fate, who falls at length upon the sword 
of justice." 2 

We sometimes feel inclined to ask in wonderment whether 
Mrs. Eddy could really believe what she wrote, and yet there 
cannot be the slightest doubt that she did with an intensity of 
feeling sufficient at times to demoralize her entirely. 

"This malpractitioner," she says of Kennedy in the 1881 
edition, "tried his best to break down our health before we 
learned the cause of our sufferings. It was difficult for us to 
credit the facts of his malice or to admit they lie within the 
pale of mortal thought." 

1 Retrospection, p. 46. 

a Cf. Milmine: op. cit., pp. 218-232. Science and Health (1881), p. 38. 



96 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 



And 



again : 



"We say that he did these things because we have as much 
evidence of it as ever we had of the existence of any sin. The 
symptoms and circumstances of the cases, and the diagnosis 
of their diseases proved the unmistakable fact. His career of 
crime surpasses anything that minds in general can accept at 
this period." - 1 

This dread of mental malpractice, variously known by Mrs. 
Eddy's intimates as the Red Dragon, malicious animal magnet- 
ism or (abbreviated) M.A.M., accompanied the discoverer of 
Christian Science throughout her life, finding vent in all her 
writings. In 1887 a department devoted to malicious animal 
magnetism became one of the regular features of the Journal, 
and continued for some years. At the head of this department 
regularly occurred the following quotation from Nehemiah: 
"Also they have dominion over our bodies and over our cattle 
at their pleasure, and we are in great distress." 2 

Even in the latest editions of Science and Health we find 
such effusions as these : 

"Whosoever uses his developed mental powers like an es- 
caped felon, to commit fresh atrocities as opportunity occurs, 
is never safe. God will arrest him ; divine justice will manacle 
him. His sins will be millstones about his neck, weighing 
him down to the depths of ignominy and death. The aggra- 
vation of the error foretells its doom, and confirms the an- 
cient axiom 'Whom the gods would destroy, they first make 
mad.' From ordinary medical practice the distance to Chris- 
tian Science is full many a league in the line of light ; but to 
go from the use of inanimate drugs in healing, to the criminal 
misuse of human willpower, is to drop from the platform of 
common manhood into the very mire of iniquity, to work 
against the free course of honesty and justice and push 
vainly against the current running heavenward." 3 

We almost fancy ourselves back in the full swing of Pagan- 
ism, when we find such sentiments proposed in all seriousness to 

1 Milmine: op. cit., in McClure's Magazine, Vol. XXIX, p. 338. 
'Ibid., p. 692. * 

3 Science and Health, pp. 105-106. 



Malicious Animal Magnetism 97 

men as a guiding principle of their conduct. What difference, 
after all, is there whether we live in continual fear of infernal 
demons, always ready to pounce on us and harm us in life and 
limb, or whether we dread the same things performed in much 
the same way from our human fellow-beings? How this Pagan 
superstition could regain its hold, and become a leading tenet 
in a system that pretends to be scientific and Christian is only 
another illustration of the oft-repeated assertion that as soon 
as one forsakes the safe path of faith, one strays away into 
the vagaries of superstition. 

It may not be out of place here to inquire how Mrs. Eddy 
could square her Science with her superstitious fear of animal 
magnetism. If God is All-in-all, where does malicious animal 
magnetism come in? We might answer with truth in Miss 
Milmine's words that 

"when the original Science of Man, as she (Mrs. Eddy) had 
learned it from Quimby and as she had first taught it, no 
longer met the needs of her own nature, Mrs. Eddy simply 
went ahead and added to her religion out of the exuberance 
of her feelings, leaving justification to the commentators — 
and she has rapped them soundly, whenever they have at- 
tempted it." 1 

And yet, it may be doubted whether the doctrine of mental 
malpractice is as inconsistent with Christian Science as it ap- 
pears on the surface. Let us review the situation historically : 
Mesmerism had entered early into Mrs. Eddy's life ; but it was 
only after she began to teach Christian Science that it devel- 
oped into that overmastering fear which obsessed her for the 
remainder of her life, and made her quake helplessly before 
these invisible terrors that could act independently of space 
and matter by the power of a malevolent mind alone. Was this 
fear completely an adventitious one, entirely out of keeping 
with her teaching? In short, was it a mere personal mortal 
belief of Mrs. Eddy's without basis in fact and without place in 
Science? The fact that Mrs. Eddy has assigned to it such a 
prominent place in all her writings, and defends it against all 

1 Milmine: op. cit., p. 227. 



98 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

comers, seems to warrant a negative answer. And indeed, 
though mortal mind and erroneous beliefs have no real exist- 
ence in Mrs. Eddy's sense of the word, they are, nevertheless, 
very real to her in the ordinary sense of the word. Now, ab- 
sent treatment often at great distances, is a specialty with 
modern mind-healers in general, and with Christian Science in 
particular. Need we wonder, then, that the counterpart of di- 
vine Mind which is always good, namely mortal mind which is 
always evil, should also be believed to act at will for considerable 
distances? Thus, rightly or wrongly, malicious animal magnet- 
ism has taken its place among the fundamental tenets of Chris- 
tian Science. 

This parallelism once established, be it even unconsciously, 
the importance of animal magnetism was bound to grow in 
Christian Science lore. Not only did Mrs. Eddy impute to all 
her disaffected or rejected students the fell design of exercising 
this nefarious power against herself, whom she thought they 
could not but regard as their enemy ; not only did she assign to 
this subject a prominence out of all proportion in her doctrinal 
teaching, but she made it also the subject of direct legislation. 
We find the following regulations in the Church Manual: 

Art. VIII, sect. 8: Members will not intentionally or 
knowingly malpractice, inasmuch as Christian Science can 
only be practiced according to the Golden Rule: "All things 
whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even 
so to them." (Matt. 7:12) A member of The Mother 
Church, who mentally malpractices upon, or treats our 
Leader, or her staff, without her or their consent, shall be 
disciplined, and a second offense as aforesaid shall cause 
the name of said member to be dropped forever from The 
Mother Church. 1 

Art. XI, sect. 9: Members of this Church shall not learn 
hypnotism on penalty of being excommunicated from this 
Church. No member shall enter a complaint of mental mal- 

*As Mrs. Eddy in another article had laid down the rule that "If the 
author of Science and Health shall bear witness to the offense of mental 
malpractice, it shall be considered a sufficient evidence thereof," it can be 
imagined what arbitrary powers these by-laws placed in her hand. She used 
these unstintingly to the discomfort of all her fancied enemies and of all 
apostates from her Church. 



Malicious Animal Magnetism 99 

practice for a sinister purpose. If the author of Science 
and Health shall bear witness to the offense of mental mal- 
practice, it shall be considered a sufficient evidence thereof. 
Art. XXIV, sect. 3: Teachers shall instruct their pupils 
how to defend themselves against mental malpractice, never 
to return evil for evil, but to know the truth that makes 
free, and thus to be a law, not unto others, but to themselves. 

Mrs. Eddy went further. She would have liked to see the 
strong arm of the law of the land lifted up against these mental 
assassms. 

"Courts and juries," she wrote, "judge and sentence mor- 
tals, in order to restrain crime, to prevent deeds of violence, 
or to punish them. To say that these tribunals have no 
jurisdiction over mortal mind, would be to contradict prece- 
dent, and to admit that the power of human law is re- 
stricted to matter, while mortal mind which is the real 
outlaw defies justice and is recommended to mercy. Can 
matter commit a crime? Can matter be punished? Can 
you separate the mentality from the body over which courts 
hold jurisdiction? Mortal mind, not matter, is the criminal 
in every case, and human law rightly estimates crime, and 
courts reasonably sentence it according to its motive." x 

This was no mere empty rhetoric, witness the famous witch- 
craft trial which created such an amount of surprised merri- 
ment, back in 1878. When Mr. Spofford, who had brought 
Mr. and Mrs. Eddy together; who had so laboriously disposed 
of the first edition of Science and Health; who had been on such 
intimate terms with his teacher as to deserve to be called by 
her Harry (Harrison) and to receive her letters signed simply 
Mary ; when this man at last lost his place in the sun and was 
ignominiously expelled for "immorality," that means disloyalty 
to Mrs. Eddy, he fell at once into the category of mesmerists 
or "mental marauders." The higher the place he had occupied 
in Mrs. Eddy's affections, the deeper the resentment which now 
rankled in her breast. Only Kennedy was more sincerely hated. 
In the case of Spofford the most formidable attack took the 
form of a legal prosecution. 

1 Science and Health, p. 105. 



100 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

A certain Lucretia Brown, cured for a time by one of Mrs. 
Eddy's students, had suffered a severe relapse. Mrs. Eddy 
being consulted had the solution of this nwstery on the tip of 
her tongue: "Spofford was bewitching her." She did more 
than just pronounce sentence ; summoning to her house the apos- 
tolic number of twelve, she began to treat Spofford "adversely." 
"She required each of these twelve students, one after another, 
to take Mr. Spofford up mentally for two hours, declaring in 
thought that he had no power to heal, must give up his practice, 
and so forth." 

When this novel form of intensified absent treatment proved 
unavailing, she asked her lawyer to draw up in Miss Brown's 
name a bill of complaint in which Spofford was accused of being 
a mesmerist, of controlling "by his said art and the power of 
his mind the minds and bodies of other persons . . . for the 
purpose of injuring the persons and property and social rela- 
tions of others," and in particular of having "at divers times 
and places, wrongfully and maliciously and with intent to in- 
jure the plaintiff, caused the plaintiff . . . great suffering of 
body and mind and severe spinal pains and neuralgia and a 
temporary suspension of mind." x 

The trial was set for May 14, 1878. On that memorable 
day Mrs. Eddy and Mr. Arens, her new ephemeral favorite, who 
himself was soon to be classed among the mesmerists, both under 
power of attorney for Miss Brown, and attended by some twenty 
witnesses appeared at the opening session of the Supreme Ju- 
dicial Court in Salem to lay this case before the judges of the 
Bench. As might have been expected, the case was demurred 
to, and was dismissed by the judge with the smiling remark 
"that it was not within the power of the courts to control Mr. 
Spofford's mind." 

Miss Milmine comments as follows on this case: 

"So, after a lapse of nearly two centuries, another 
charge of witchcraft was made before the Court in Salem 
village. But it was an anachronism merely, and elicited 
such ridicule that it was hard to realize that, because of 

1 Cf. Milmine: op. cit., pp. 239-243. 



Malicious Animal Magnetism 101 

charges quite as fanciful, one hundred and twenty-six per- 
sons were once lodged in Salem jail, nineteen persons were 
hanged, and an entire community was plunged into anguish 
and terror. . . . Mrs. Eddy's attempt to revive the witch 
horror was only a courtroom burlesque upon the grimmest 
tragedy in New England history. It is interesting only in 
that it demonstrates how surely the same effects follow the 
same causes. When Mrs. Eddy had succeeded in overcoming 
in her students' minds the tradition of sound reasoning 
of which they and their century were the fortunate heirs, 
when she had convinced them that there were no physical 
causes for physical ills, she had unwittingly plunged them 
back into the torturing superstitions which it had taken 
the world so long to overcome. . . . Among this little group 
of people who had been friends and fellow-seekers after 
God, there broke out in a milder form that same scourge 
of fear and distrust which demoralised Salem from 1692- 
1694. In the attempt to bring the glad tidings of emancipa- 
tion from the operation of physical law, which is sometimes 
cruel, Mrs. Eddy had come back to the cruelest of all de- 
basing superstitions, that of attributing disease and mis- 
fortune to a malevolent human agency." x 

The terrors with which the belief in the reality of animal 
magnetism inspired Mrs. Eddy are pathetic in the extreme. In 
the course of time she came to distinguish between various 
brands of this nefarious power. "All mental malpractice," she 
now declared, "arises from ignorance or malice aforethought." 
She defines it as "the action of one mortal mind taking control 
of another, without the other's knowledge or consent." It is 
practiced from either "mistaken or wicked motives," and, con- 
sequently, it is either ignorant or malicious. 2 At first she ac- 
counted for her repeated fits of illness by the theory that she 

1 Milmine: op. cit., 243-244. Mr. Spofford appeared again in court in 
October of the same year (1878), this time as a complainant against Mr. 
Eddy and Mr. Arens charging both with conspiracy to murder him. The 
details of this sensational trial can be read in Milmine, op. cit., pp. 250-261, 
and Peabody, The Beligio-Medical Masquerade, pp. 185-188. Mrs. Eddy 
and Mr. Arens were indicted, but for some unexplained reason this indict- 
ment was never prosecuted, but, upon the payment of costs by Mr. Eddy, 
was not prossed. 

2 Science and Health, p. 451. 



102 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

bore in her own person the ills from which she released her 
patients. But time brought different views: 

"By 1877 Mrs. Eddy not only believed that she suffered 
from the physical ills from which her students were released, 
but declared that her students followed her in thought and 
selfishly took from her to feed their own weakness. The 
work upon the second edition could not go on, because they 
nourished themselves upon her and sapped her powers." 1 

Sometimes Mrs. Eddy is near despair. She must flee from 
Lynn, because mesmerism is waxing too powerful there; she 
must abandon Boston for the same reason; even as late as 1908 
when Mrs. Eddy was eighty-seven years old, she has to give up 
Pleasant View, driven away by the same mysterious force. Mrs. 
Eddy was sure that mesmerism interfered not only with her 
health, but also with her property. 

"Mesmerism caused the water-pipes to freeze and the 
wash-boiler to leak. She was convinced that all the postal 
clerks and telegraph operators in Boston had been mes- 
merized, and on one occasion, when she was sending an im- 
portant telegram to Chicago, she sent Luther M. Marston, 
one of her students, to West Newton, to dispatch it via 
Worcester, so that it need not go through Boston at all." 2 

On another occasion she ordered the publisher of the Chris- 
tian Science Journal, "to take the magazine and flee with it at 
once into some other city; if he stayed in Boston a month 
longer, she declared, mesmerism would wreck the periodical." 
Mr. Dixon, the publisher, went to Philadelphia, but hardly had 
he found a suitable office and printer, when he was ordered to 
bring the Journal back to Boston at once. 3 

Not all of Mrs. Eddy's troubles came from her supposed 
enemies. She knew that her friends were causing her untold 
sufferings. In course of time she came to feel absolutely cer- 
tain who it was that caused her a particular affliction. It was 
on the strength of these feelings that Mrs. Eddy inserted in her 
Church Manual this arbitrary ruling that "if the author of 

•Milmine: op. cit., p. 214. 

Ubid., p. 301. 

3 Ibid., in McClure's Magazine, Vol. XXX, p. 584. 






Malicious Animal Magnetism 103 

Science and Health shall bear witness to the offense of mental 
malpractice, it shall be considered a sufficient evidence there- 
of." x So also she wrote to Spofford : 

"... those who call on me mentally in suffering are in belief 
killing me ! . . . Tell this to Miss Brown, Mr. McLauthlen, 
Mrs. Atkinson and Miss Norman, but do not let them know 
they can call on me thus, if they are doing this ignorantly ; 
and if they do it consciously, tell McLauthlen and them all 
it would be no greater crime for them, to come directly and 
thrust a dagger into my heart; they are just as surely in 
belief killing me and committing murder." 2 

Another letter belonging to the same period and addressed 
to the same person breathes exactly the same spirit: 

"I am in Boston today feeling very, very little better for 
the five weeks that are gone. I cannot finish the Key 3 ; yet I 
will be getting myself, and all of a sudden I am seized as 
sensibly by some others' belief as the hand could lay hold of 
me. My sufferings have made me utterly weaned from this 
plane, and if my husband was only willing to give me up, 
I would gladly yield up the ghost of this terrible earth plane 
and join those nearer my Life." 3 

As long as Mrs. Eddy adhered to the belief that malicious 
animal magnetism was inseparably bound up with manipula- 
tion, there was some limit set to her anxieties ; but when she 
threw Mr. Spofford overboard, this restriction, too, had to go. 
"Mesmerism," she now wrote, "is practiced through manipula- 
tion — and without it. And we have learned, by new observa- 
tion, the fool who says 'There is no God' attempts more evil 
without a sign than with it." 4 After this final pronouncement 
Mrs. Eddy's dread of mental malpractice grew apace. If her 
friends, unwittingly, could draw from her vital forces and, thus, 
become a source of acute suffering, need we wonder that she 
lived in daily and deadly awe of her supposed enemies? She 
suffered from the obsession of persecution which alone can ac- 

1 Church Manual, Art. XI, sect. 9. 

a Milmine: op. cit., p. 214. Italics are Mrs. Eddy's. Cf. p. 49. 
3 Ibid., p. 215. The "Key" referred to is the Key to the Scripture, part of 
Science and Health. 
* Science and Health (ed. 1878), quoted by Milmine, p. 226. 



104 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

count for some of her strange actions, and which affected her 
whole surrounding and all her teaching. 

"The atmosphere of Mrs. Eddy's house," writes Miss 
Milmine, "derived its peculiar character from her belief in 
malicious animal magnetism which exerted a sinister influ- 
ence over every one under her roof. Her students could 
never get away from it. Morning, noon and night the thing 
had to be reckoned with, and the very domestic arrange- 
ments were ordered to elude or to combat the demoniacal 
power. If Mrs. Eddy had kept in her house a dangerous 
maniac or some horrible physical monstrosity which was 
always breaking from confinement and stealing about the 
chambers and hallways, it could scarcely have cast a more 
depressing anxiety over her household. Those of her stu- 
dents who believed in mesmerism were always on their guard 
with each other, filled with suspicion and distrust. Those 
who did not believe in it, dared not admit their disbelief. 
If a member of that household denied the doctrine, or even 
showed a lack of interest in it, he was at once pronounced a 
mesmerist and requested to leave." 1 

An even more drastic and personal estimate is given us by 
Mr. Peabody who writes : 

"I have talked with a gentleman who years ago with his 
family lived for some six months in the house with Mrs. 
Eddy ; and he said to me with great earnestness, 'I lived there 
six months and, I tell you, Sir, I rather would spend ten 
years in hell than another six months in Mrs. Eddy's com- 
pany. She nearly drove my children into frenzy with her 
malicious animal magnetism business.' " 2 

Mrs. Eddy, driven to bay, as it were, declared that she had 
to protect herself by treating her enemies adversely. Con- 
vinced that she could tell from whom the magnetic influence 
came, she would ask her students at that particular time to 
treat so and so adversely. This treatment became an impor- 
tant feature in Mrs. Eddy's home. 

"A regular society was organized among Mrs. Eddy's 
most trusted students and was called the P.M. (Private Meet- 

1 Milmine: op. cit., p. 301. 

2 Peabody: op. cit., p. 173. 



Malicious Animal Magnetism 105 

nig). This society met daily after breakfast in the morn- 
ing and after supper at night, gathered in Mrs. Eddy's 
parlor and 'took up the enemy' in thought. Mrs. Eddy was 
not always present at these sittings, but she usually gave out 
the line of treatment. She would say for example: 'Treat 
Kennedy. Say to him, Your sins have found you out. You 
are affected as you wish to affect me. Your evil thought reacts 
upon you. You are bilious, you are consumptive, you have 
liver trouble, you have been poisoned by arsenic. . . .' " * 

It seems to have been especially at night that this animal 
magnetism came to torment Mrs. Eddy. Her nocturnal ill- 
nesses became more frequent and more violent with the years, 
and one of the principal duties of the resident students was to 
treat Mrs. Eddy for these attacks. 

"These seizures usually came on about midnight. Mrs. 
Eddy would first call Mr. Frye, and he, after hurrying into 
his clothes, would go about the house, knocking at the doors 
of all the students, and calling them to dress immediately 
and hurry down to Mrs. Eddy's room. After arousing the 
inmates of the house, he would hasten through the deserted 
streets, summoning one after another of the healers whom 
Mrs. Eddy considered most effective. When they arrived 
at the college, they would find a group of sleepy men stand- 
ing in the hall outside Mrs. Eddy's door, talking in low 
tones. They were called, one by one, by Miss Bartlett or 
Mr. Frye, and admitted singly into Mrs. Eddy's chamber. 
Sometimes she lay in a comatose condition, and would 
remain thus for several hours, while each student, in his 
turn, sat beside the bed and silently treated her for about 
twenty minutes. He then left the room by another door 
than the one by which he had entered, and another student 
took his place. . . . 2 

This picture of the new freedom which Christian Science 
was bringing into the world ought to open the eyes of those 
who still speak of Christian Science as a religion of healthy- 
mindedness. The bane of this fear manifested itself not only 
in Mrs. Eddy, but also in those that had to live with her. As 

1 Milmine: op. cit., p. 304. 
a Ibid., pp. 301-302. 



106 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

Asa Gilbert Eddy was the closest associate of his wife in her 
life work, so also was he most impressed by the dreadful possi- 
bilities of this subtle malignant power. He ma}' not have be- 
lieved in it more sincerely than his wife, but with less power of 
reaction and recuperation, his health suffered more under the 
strain. He sneaked through the city streets like one whose 
every step was dogged by unknown pursuers. He spoke in a 
whisper and anxiously looked round about when transacting 
any business even of little importance, afraid that a mesmerist 
might be there to cross his purpose. Especially after his arrest 
Mr. Eddy fell into an ever deepening gloom, and became lit- 
erally the victim of his own fears. Christian Science treatment 
was of no avail in his case: the fear it had instilled did its slow 
but deadly work and was not counterbalanced by that spirit of 
optimism and that J03 7 of life which is popularly believed to be 
the badge of Christian Science. He lingered on for some years. 
Even the eyes of a Christian Scientist could not help feeling 
that he was failing. At last Mrs. Eddy, thoroughly alarmed, 
threw all her science to the winds, and, in open contradiction 
with herself and her teaching, she summoned a regular physi- 
cian to his bedside, who diagnosed his illness as a very common 
form of heart disease. But Mr. Eddy was beyond human help : 
he died on June 3, 1882, after only five and a half years of 
wedded life. Mrs. Eddy was beside herself from fear. All her 
worst suspicions she found verified in the case of her deceased 
husband. The mesmerists who had been haunting her so per- 
sistently had at last found a victim in her husband. She was 
convinced, or pretended to be convinced, that animal magnet- 
ism had killed him. To prove this to the world, she violated 
another fundamental rule of her organization, a rule which only 
the year before she had inserted in her Church Manual, and 
which reads: "A metaphysician never gives medicine, recom- 
mends or trusts in hygiene, or believes in the ocular or the post- 
mortem examination of patients." In the same edition of 
Science and Health she had declared that "many a hopeless 
case of disease is induced by a single post-mortem examina- 
tion." * Despite these strong words, Mr. Eddy was no sooner 
1 Science and Health (ed. 1881), p. 269 and p. 163. 



Malicious Animal Magnetism 107 

dead than Mrs. Eddy, with her customary inconsistency, tele- 
graphed for a physician to come and perform an autopsy. By 
this post-mortem examination the doctor proved to Mrs. Eddy 
that her husband had died of organic heart disease. Notwith- 
standing this testimony and the evidence submitted to her, Mrs. 
Eddy on the very same day sent out the following statement: 

"My husband's death was caused by malicious animal 
magnetism. Dr. C. J. Eastman (a Christian Scientist) who 
attended the case after it had taken an alarming turn, de- 
clares the symptoms to be the same as those of arsenic 
poisoning. On the other hand, Dr. Rufus K. Noyes, late of 
the City Hospital, who held an autopsy over the body to-day, 
affirms that the corpse is free from all material poisoning, 
although Dr. Eastman still holds to his original belief. / 
know it was poison that killed him, not material poison, but 
mesmeric poison. . . ." x 

Here we may close this subject of animal magnetism. By 
introducing it into her teaching, Mrs. Eddy nullified and stulti- 
fied her doctrines concerning God, the universal Mind, Life, 
Love and only Reality. By it she opened the floodgates through 
which poured in all kinds of superstitious fears, groundless 
suspicions and unwarranted judgments. It led to practices 
which in reality voided her religion of that love which in theory 
she preached. Hatreds, embittered feelings, false aspersions, 
and criminal attempts are the natural fruits of this scandalous 
doctrine. "The opponents of Christian Science must be char- 
itable,'' writes Mrs. Eddy, "if they would be Christian. If 
the letter of Christian Science appears inconsistent, they 
should gain its spiritual meaning." 2 How can we better attain 
to this spiritual meaning than by its practical application. 
The test proposition "by their fruits you shall know them" 
which Mrs. Eddy wants to have applied to her successful cures, 
we must also apply to her failures, and first of all, to her mental 
and moral failures. There can be nothing more damning than 
this test when applied to the doctrine of malicious animal mag- 
netism. 

1 Milmine: op. cit., p. 286. 
2 Science and Health, p. 354. 



108 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

And yet, Mrs. Eddy could not well have done without it. 
She needed it to round out her system ; she needed it to answer 
objections; she needed it to explain her own teaching concern- 
ing human beliefs; she needed it, above all, to justify in the 
e3'es of her own followers her frequent lapses into sickness which, 
according to her teaching, has no real existence. This test 
alone will satisfy every earnest seeker after truth, even if it 
fail to influence the declared partisan of a movement. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE FACT OF MENTAL CURES 

"Coming down to more recent times," wrote Thomson Jay 
Hudson some thirty years ago, "we find that cures seemingly 
miraculous are as common today as at any period of the 
world's history. In fact, one unbroken line of such phe- 
nomena is presented to the student of psychotherapeutics 
which extends from the earliest period of recorded history 
to the present time. At no time of the world's history has 
there been such a widespread interest in the subject as now, 
and the hopeful feature is that the subject is no longer 
relegated to the domain of superstition, but is being studied 
by all classes of people, from the ablest scientists down 
to the humblest peasants." 

Of the various schools of mental healing he says : ". . . all 
these schools effect cures of the most wonderful character, many 
of them taking rank with the miracles of the Master." 1 

It goes without saying that Christian Science and New 
Thought both agree in claiming these honors for themselves. 
Says Mrs. Eddy: 

"By thousands of well-authenticated cases of healing she 
(the author) herself and her students have proved the 
worth of her teachings. These for the most part have been 
cases abandoned as hopeless by regular medical attendants. 
. . . Today there is hardly a city, village, or hamlet, in 
which are not to be found living witnesses and monuments 
to the virtue and power of Truth, as applied through this 
Christian system for healing disease." 2 

Mr. Evans, who in some respects may be considered the 

founder of New Thought, goes so far as to express a belief that 

the mental healer will eventually oust the regular physician: 

1 Hudson: The Law of Psychic Phenomena (Chicago, 1893), p. 147. 
a Science and Health, Preface, p. x and p. 149. 

109 



110 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

"The first," he says, "somehow brings into action the 
divine principles of faith and imagination and directs their 
force upon the body, and the world accepts the result as al- 
most, if not quite, miraculous. The time may come when 
there will be an entire revolution of public opinion, and 
the now unorthodox physician, who appeals, whether he 
knows it or not, more directly to the principles that in the 
highest degree influence the bodily condition, will be ac- 
cepted as the man who is legally authorized to prescribe for 
'the ills that flesh is heir to.' He who can best minister to a 
mind diseased, and control and direct these mental forces so 
as to modify the corporeal condition, is the best physician. 
And if he is 'constrained by the love of Christ' or the same 
benevolent impulse that actuated him, he is in the regular line 
of apostolic succession, even though no mitred priest has laid 
hands upon his head and consecrated him to a work, the 
importance of which the ecclesiastical functionary under- 
stands but little or nothing." 1 

The problem, therefore, which presents itself now, is whether 
and how far, these pretentious assertions are based on facts : for 
evidently there is no room for any hypothesis purporting to 
explain the manner of the cures until the reality of the cure 
is first established. 

I. THE CURES OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 2 

Reports of cures by Christian Scientists are abundant. A 
full chapter in Science and Health is consecrated to them; 
every issue of the Journal contains a number of them ; even in 
the Congressional Record is found a well-selected list of them. 

We may at once discard the cures, eighty-four in all, re- 
corded in the textbook. Even overlooking the fact that the re- 
ports are unsigned and that most of them are extremely vague, 
it is plain from the nature of these testimonials that they 

1 Evans: The Divine Law of Cure (Boston, 1881), p. 211. 

2 Consult on this subject Science and Health, passim, especially chapter 
xviii; any issue of the Christian Science Journal; Congressional Record, 
Vol. LI I, Part I, pp. 1039 ff. Also Huber, in Popular Science Monthly, 
1899, p. 755, article: "Christian Science from a Physician's Point of View." 
Cabot, in McClure's Magazine, Vol XXXI, p. 472 ff. article: "One Hundred 
Christian Science Cures." Powell: Christian Science, the Faith and the 
Founder (New York, 1907). Paget: Faith and Works of Christian Science 
(New York, 1909). 






The Fact of Mental Cures 111 

obtained their honorable position in the textbook for no other 
purpose than to promote its sale. In almost every instance 
the cure is ascribed directly to the reading of the book. 1 

The cures reported in the Journal enjoy over those just 
mentioned the advantage of not being anonymous, full name 
and address being given in every instance. Some of these 
reputed cures are plainly ridiculous; most of the others can 
easily be accounted for on very natural grounds ; a few of them 
might deserve a more minute discussion. Dr. Paget has exam- 
ined scientifically two hundred such cases reported between 
April and August, 1908, and Dr. Cabot one hundred others, 
both of these authorities finding very little in them to arrest 
their attention. 2 

But we have a better selection in the Congressional Record. 
In the year 1915 Senator Works, a convinced Christian Scien- 
tist, spoke against extending further governmental protection 
to the medical profession, and, in the course of his argument, 
called the attention of his colleagues to the works and principles 
of Christian Science, giving as documentary evidence fifty-seven 
reports, some of which, twenty-one in number, he had selected 
"from the experience of people of his own acquaintance," and 
the others had been obtained for him by "a good and reliable 
friend. They are," he adds, "so convincing of the efficacy of 
Christian Science healing that I cannot see how any fair and 
candid mind can continue to doubt it." 3 

The selection is evidently made with great care, and, as far 
as outward appearance goes, can leave little to be desired. Not 
only are the names and addresses of the patients given, but in 
many cases also those of the physicians under whose care they 

1 For a more detailed examination consult Searle : The Truth about Chris- 
tian Science (New York, 1916), pp. 246-293. 

2 Christian Scientists not only cure themselves, but also their animals by 
means of their Science. A ludicrous case is reported in the Journal of 
October, 1887. It is as follows: 

"Dear Journal: Our dog was bitten by a rattlesnake on the tongue a 
short time ago, and the verdict, as is usual in such cases, was death; but 
through the understanding of God's promise that we shall handle serpents 
and not be harmed, if we but believe, I was able to demonstrate over the 
belief in four days. The dog is now as well as ever." This is not the only 
case of its kind. Cf. Paget: op. cit., pp. 101-129. Cabot, in McClure's 
Magazine, op. cit., pp. 472 ff. 

3 Congressional Record, Vol. LII, Part I, p. 1034, 



112 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

were. Physicians would, undoubtedly, find the description of 
the symptoms in many cases insufficient ; but the lay mind can- 
not but be impressed by the reading of them, especially as Sena- 
tor Works owed his own strong feelings in the matter to his per- 
sonal experience: "I was healed," he testified, "in Christian 
Science, when death was near, and after all hope of relief from 
medical practitioners had been abandoned after long and faith- 
ful trial of such remedies." * 

It is clearly impossible to give here more than a summary of 
the diseases of which these persons claim to have been cured, and 
the full report of one or two of the more remarkable cases in a 
collection where all are remarkable. I disclaim in advance 
any intention of passing judgment on their intrinsic merit, as 
only physicians have the necessary qualifications for such a 
task. If I quote any at all, it is partly to bring them to the 
attention of persons that are interested in these studies, partly 
to acquaint the reader with the nature of the material on which 
the physicians, whose verdict will be quoted later, base their 
judgment. 

first case 2 
Miss Julia C. Meek — Chronic Myelitis 
About eight years ago, at the age of thirteen, I was 
taken with what physicians called chronic myelitis, which 
gradually developed in intensity until it extended over the 
entire length of the spinal column, in consequence of which 
my entire body, except the right arm, became absolutely 
useless. ~My head and knees were drawn so closely together 
that the only way I could take food was by having my knees 
forced apart and being fed by means of a tube. Every 
physician who was employed pronounced my case incurable,, 
and in consultation they agreed that it was impossible for 
me to live, and positively would never be well. After failing 
to receive any help or get any encouragement from the sev- 
eral physicians, I turned to Christian Science, and through 
its efficacy was completely healed. The following doctors 
were employed: Dr. C. 0. Bernhardt, Sr., 506 Eighteenth 
Street, Rock Island, 111.; Dr. George Eyster, 1109 Second 

1 Congressional Record, loc. cit., p. 1028. 
'Ibid., p. 1036 (case 17). 



The Fact of Mental Cures 113 

Avenue, Rock Island, 111.; Dr. J. F. Meyers, 2926 Fifth 
Avenue, Moline, 111.; Dr. V. A. Berland, 1721 1/ 2 Second 
Avenue, Rock Island, 111. 

Respectfully yours, 

(Miss) Julia C. Meek, 
912 Seventeenth Street, Rock Island, 111. 

The narrative of this young lady bears on its face the 
marks of sincerity and truth. Yet how careful one must be 
about accepting testimonies may be illustrated by another case 
reported by Senator Works. Christian Science makes the 
claim that its treatment can benefit little children through the 
thoughts of their parents, and testimonials to this effect find a 
conspicuous place in every collection of cures. The following 
represents one such case: 

case 26 x 

Child of Mr. and Mrs. A. K. Wine — Crippled and Deformed 
from, Birth 

Washington, D. C. 
September 19, 1914. 

Our youngest daughter, born July 15, 1912, was mis- 
shapen at birth, having curvature of the spine, and both arms 
and legs constantly remained in an unnatural position, one 
arm being drawn down to the side and back in a twisted 
position, the other arm being drawn up back of the head; 
both legs were drawn up in an unnatural position. The 
child had convulsions from the day of her birth, sometimes 
as many as eighteen in a day and night. Every particle of 
food she attempted to eat would bring on convulsions. She 
never had a natural movement of the bowels. We tried every 
means that we could, but her condition never improved. 

On August 1, 1913, we took her to Johns Hopkins Hos- 
pital, in Baltimore. The surgeons told us that the child 
had been injured at birth and had a clot of blood on the 
brain; that she was an idiot and could not live; that if it 
were possible for her to live, she would never be able to walk, 
because her legs were drawn out of shape. They also said 
that one shoulder was dislocated. She was in such a mis- 
shapen condition that this had never been discovered. We 

1 Congressional Record, Vol. LI I, Part I, p. 1037. 



114 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

brought the child home, and the end seemed to be at hand. 
The local physician, Dr. William P. Wood, said that she 
was nearly gone, and we began to make arrangements for the 
funeral. She revived, however, and continued to live. Some 
friends then called our attention to Christian Science and ad- 
vised us to give it a trial. We did so, and as soon as the 
treatment in Christian Science commenced, the convulsions 
stopped and the bowels began to act normally, and have 
done so ever since. One day when bathing her and moving 
as carefuly as possible the dislocated arm, it suddenly 
snapped into place with considerable noise. It has remained 
in place ever since. She is now able to stand on her feet, 
her legs are straight, and she is learning to walk and talk, 
and is not an idiot. 

Before being healed in Christian Science she had cut 
several teeth. They were all without enamel, so soft and 
chalky that they could be flaked off with the finger nail. 
Since her healing the teeth that she has cut have been cov- 
ered with enamel, and enamel is forming at the roots of the 
teeth that came before she was healed. 

The surgeons at the Johns Hopkins Hospital stated, 
among other tilings, that a rib had been broken and grown 
together. There was a disagreeable-looking lump where the 
break had occurred. The lump has entirely disappeared. 
Her back is also perfectly straight. 

Mrs. Maude A. Wine, 
A. K. Wine, 
116 Third Street, N. E. 

An affidavit is added : 

This is to certify that I have this day seen the daughter 
of Mr. and Mrs. A. K. Wine, referred to in the accompany- 
ing statement. The appearance of the child bears out the 
statement of the parents. The child appears bright, active 
and happy. 

William S. Campbell, 
The Burlington. 

This certainly reads like a most remarkable case of the 
power of mind over the bodies of others. To make assurance 
doubly sure, I wrote to the parents of the baby and received 
the following reply: 



The Fact of Mental Cures 115 

My Dear Sir: Your letter dated October 25, received 
and the questions noted. I can only say in reply, that the 
statement concerning the condition of our baby girl as found 
in the Congressional Record, Vol. II, Part I, p. 1037, is ab- 
solutely correct. 

The case was thoroughly investigated and proven, before 
being given out by the California senator on the floor of 
the senate. Sincerely, 

Mrs. A. K. Wine. 

Two of my questions remained unanswered, namely (1) 
whether this child was still living at the time of my inquiry, and 
(2) whether I might be permitted to see her. As I did not 
receive satisfaction on these two points, I continued my inves- 
tigations and ascertained that the child must have died shortly 
after being reported cured. She had never been known to be 
able to walk or to talk and was carefully secreted from the 
view of the neighbors. This shows with how much distrust such 
testimonials must be read. Without in any way accusing any- 
body of bad faith, it is evident how easy self-deception is in 
these matters, and how the whole truth is not, as a rule, printed 
in testimonials given out in favor of a particular school or sect. 

In all the cases reported by the Senator, so far as we are 
able to judge, the cure was a gradual one. There is perhaps 
one exception, the case of Dr. Burton, an alumnus of Rush 
Medical School, Chicago, who after his cure gave up his medi- 
cal practice in order to devote himself to Christian Science 
healing. He describes his physicial condition as follows : 

"About twelve years ago I was advised . . . that I must 
go to Arizona, if I would take my one chance for life, as 
I would soon die with consumption otherwise. . . . When 
I went to Arizona I tried to stop the drug, but found that 
I had a well-founded opium habit and that, when I attempted 
to break it, which I did several times, the lung trouble became 
too serious to be borne. . . . To make a long and miserable 
story as short as possible, these three things — alcohol, mor- 
phine, and cocaine — became my food and drink . . . until 
toward the end I was taking such quantities as no one has 
ever recovered from, so far as I know. For weeks I took on 
an average of more than one hundred grains each of these 



116 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

two drugs hypodermically, and consumed between one and 
two quarts of whisky daily. I became entirely demented and 
a menace to those about me." 

At this point the patient was near his end. Five of his fel- 
low-physicians told his wife at a time, when he had been uncon- 
scious for forty-eight hours, that he could not live more than 
three or four weeks, and that this time must be spent under 
the strictest restraint. It is then that the cure occurred: 

"At the request of a friend whose husband had been 
benefited by Christian Science, Mrs. Burton was induced to 
allow a Christian Science practitioner to call to see me. 
Again to make a long story short, he came and spent three 
hours with me. I have no memory of his coming or of his 
going, but he left me asleep, and I woke on the following 
morning free from all of these habits, normal in brain and 
nerve, hungry, energetic, clear-headed and happy. I knew 
the moment that I awoke that something had happened to 
me, and that, whatever had done it, I was free from the 
awful things that had bound me. But I did not know what 
it was that had done it until I was told." 

His cure was a complete and lasting one. 

"That was nine years ago, the twentieth of April of this 
year. From that moment I have never felt the slightest ap- 
petite for any opiate, cocaine or alcohol in any form, have 
never felt any symptom of lung trouble, and have been men- 
tally sound and clear. Nor was there a moment of con- 
valescence. My bowel condition was normal. My nerves 
were steady and quiet. I gained 30 pounds in weight the 
subsequent month, and within ten days from this memorable 
morning I undertook and carried to a successful issue the 
most strenuous piece of work, from both mental and physical 
standpoints, that I have ever done. ..." 

This cure induced the doctor to give up his medical practice, 
and devote himself entirely to the cause of Christian Science: 

"I have spent over nine years in constant study of 
Christian Science, and seven years in its practice. I was 
most enthusiastic in the practice of surgery, and was a 
Pharisee of the Pharisees as to its virtues. I gave it up 
only after being most thoroughly convinced that there was 



The Fact of Mental Cures lit 

something better. I have learned to my entire satisfaction, 
knowing both sides of the question, that Christian Science 
is a science, and not only that, but also that it is an advance 
step — and a long one — beyond medicine and surgery, and 
that time will prove this to the whole world. I have seen 
many cases of disease healed by it after they had been pro- 
nounced hopeless and dying by the best physicians. I have 
seen disease healed through it in a few minutes where it 
would have run days or weeks, according to medical pro- 
gnosis. And although it is not the practice of Christian 
Science practitioners to attempt the healing of broken bones 
without the aid of surgery, I have seen dislocated joint and 
broken bone healed within a few days without the use of 
splint or bandage." 1 

Senator Works concluded his presentation of the case for 
Christian Science in the following words: 

"Mr. President: To summarize the cases of healing I 
have presented to the Senate, and the number of each of the 
mentioned diseases, they include fifty-seven cases, covering 
thirty-six distinct diseases, and the number of each kind 
shown to have been healed are almost if not all of them — 
regarded as incurable by medicine and surgery, and diag- 
nosed as such by competent physicians. They are as follows : 

Tuberculosis 7 Insomnia 1 

Drink Habit 3 Diabetes 2 

Drug Habit 2 Pemphigus 

Kidney disease 6 Lead Poisoning 

Cancer 10 Valvular heart disease .... 

Tumor 7 Paralysis 

Double curvature of spine. 2 Chronic Myelitis 

Asthma 1 Gallstones . . . 

Nervous Prostration 1 Lung trouble 

Neuralgia 1 Bright's disease 

Organic heart disease 1 Multiple Neuritis 

Rheumatic Gout 1 Tobacco heart 

Ulceration of Stomach ... 1 Rheumatism . ., 

Accidental injuries 1 Blindness 

Locomotor ataxia 3 Deafness 

Malformation of Children . 3 Necrosis of chest bones . . . 

Chronic Constipation 2 Epilepsy 

Indigestion 1 Appendicitis 

1 Congressional Record, ibid., pp. 1028-1029. 



118 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

"Many good people," he continued, "who do not believe 
in Christian Science concede willingly that it is doing great 
good in bringing consolation and good cheer to the bereaved 
and disconsolate, allaying fear and healing functionary or 
imaginary diseases, but deny its power to heal organic dis- 
eases. For these they still believe resort to the medical 
practitioner is necessary. In the cases I have given, not 
one (?) is of the kind to which it is thus conceded Christian 
Science may successfully minister. Of such as these, cases 
by the thousands might be cited. But they can be healed 
by the medical doctor with his drugs or his bread pills. The 
great work of Christian Science, as I have shown, is in the 
healing of organic diseases given up by the doctors as incur- 
able." x 

Senator Works has had the courage of his conviction and 
has not hesitated to give fullest expression to it, though his 
knowledge of the distinction between functional disease and 
organic disease is extremely vague. 

Out of his personal experience grew the belief that healing 
"is as much a religious rite as redemption from sin." 

"I, in my own experience and by later observations," he 
says, "have been convinced that drugs and other material al- 
leged remedies do not heal, and that there is a remedy that, 
if rightly applied, will heal all our diseases. I have been 
the more reluctant to enter upon this discussion, because 
it necessarily leads in an indirect way into a discussion of 
religion because of the conscientious belief on my part, and 
of thousands of others, that the healing of disease is as 
much a religious rite as redemption from sin, and that the 
same principle that regenerates the sinner, applied in pre- 
cisely the same way, heals the sick." 2 

II. EXPERT OPINIONS ON MENTAL HEALING 

In view of facts like those here presented Professor William 
James all too enthusiastically exclaims: 

"To my mind, a current far more important and in- 
teresting than that which sets in from natural science to- 

1 Congressional Record, ibid., p. 1039. 
3 Ibid., p. 1022. 



The Fact of Mental Cures 119 

wards healthy-mindedness is that which has recently poured 
over America and seems to be gathering force every day . . . 
and to which, for the sake of having a brief designation, 
I will give the title of the Mind-cure movement. There are 
various sects of this New Thought — to use another of the 
names by which it calls itself — but their agreements are so 
profound that their differences may be neglected for my 
present purpose. . . . The leaders in this faith have had 
an intuitive belief in the all-saving power of healthy-minded 
attitudes as such, in the conquering efficacy of courage, 
hope and trust, and a correlative contempt for doubt, fear, 
worry, and all nervous precautionary states of mind. Their 
belief has in a general way been corroborated by the prac- 
tical experience of their disciples ; and this experience forms 
today a mass imposing in amount. The blind have been 
made to see, the halt to walk; lifelong invalids have had 
their health restored. The moral fruits have been no less 
remarkable. . . . These general tonic effects on public 
opinion would be good, even if the more striking results were 
non-existent. But the latter abound, so that we can afford 
to overlook the innumerable failures and self-deceptions 
that are mixed in with them. . . . The plain fact remains 
that the spread of the movement has been due to practical 
fruits ; and the extremely practical turn of character of 
the American people has never been better shown than by 
the fact that this, their only decidedly original contribution 
to the systematic philosophy of life, should be so intimately 
knit up with concrete therapeutics." x 

To oppose the claims of Christian Science by producing evi- 
dence that it has signally failed in many cases, or by asserting 
that the sicknesses in the cases mentioned were more imaginary 
than real, or that the cure was merely temporary, or that it 
should be attributed to causes not at all connected with Chris- 
tian Science looks very much like refusing to see what one does 
not care to admit. The question is not whether Christian Sci- 
ence succeeds all the time, but whether it has to its credit a cer- 
tain number of well-accredited cures. Competent persons that 
have studied the subject at first hand grant this unhesitatingly. 

1 William James: The Varieties of Religious Experience (New York, 
1910), pp. 92-94. 



120 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

"While there are many," writes Dr. Eleanor M. Reed, 
"who are inclined to scoff at all the reported cures by 
Christian Science, and to ascribe the supposed results to 
imagination, or hypnotism, or mere suggestion, this is not 
true of those who have honestly investigated available evi- 
dence. Such students all acknowledge that among those 
with whom this so-called religion has become a matter of 
genuine personal conviction, there are occasionally wonderful 
cures of real organic disease, and very frequently relief from 
the less serious, but only slightly less discomforting difficulties 
known as functional and nervous diseases." 1 

Of the greatest weight, on this subject, especially among 
us Catholics, must be the opinion of Dr. James J. Walsh, as 
his important contributions to the study of psychotherapy place 
him in the front rank among contemporary investigators of 
mental healing. Under date of February 8, 1909, he writes 
in the Catholic Mind: 

"During the last year or two the air has been full of 
discussion of psychotherapy. The reason for this is well 
known. Christian Scientists have found that by denying the 
existence of evil and of disease of all kinds . . . they have 
succeeded in relieving many people of ills with which they have 
been afflicted often for long years. These ills have almost 
as a rule been under the care of physicians who have failed 
to relieve them. The consequence has been a calling of at- 
tention to this new mode of viewing disease. Until the last 
couple of 3 T ears this awakening of attention was confined to 
Christian Science circles. Christian Science was found, how- 
ever, to be making such serious inroads on the membership of 
Protestant churches, that the question not unnaturally oc- 
curred of taking up some of the Christian Science ideas with 
regard to the healing of disease by changing the mental atti- 
tude of people toward their ailments, in order to prevent 
further defections from Protestantism, and even perhaps to 
attract people who had not been seriously interested in re- 
ligion up to that time. It is universally conceded that this is 

J Dr. Reed, in Pan-Anglican Congress Report, 1908, Vol. Ill, sect. B; 
article: "Christian Science and the Contrasting Christian Truth." S. B., 
pp. 8-17. 



The Fact of Mental Cures 121 

the origin of the present very lively interest in psychothera- 
peutics or mental healing." x 

III. EXTENT OF MENTAL, HEALING 

The possibility of healing real diseases by merely mental 
influence being granted, it remains to be seen to what extent 
these mental influences can be effective. Is mind influence cura- 
tive in all kinds, or even in all cases of disease? Does it cure 
chronic and malignant sickness? Is it effective in organic dis- 
eases, or must it be limited to functional disorders? Sentiments 
differ and it is perhaps as yet impossible to give any definite 
answer. 

It is well known that men of science, including the greater 
portion of the medical profession, narrow down the usefulness 
of mental influence to nervous ailments, and deny that mind 
can cure organic disease, Dr. Sadler declares : 

"It should be recalled that a great many diseases can be 
wholly produced and completely cured by mental influences 
alone. Such diseases, of course, are purely functional. Other 
chronic and organic diseases, as such, cannot be produced by 
exclusive mental influences, neither can they be fully cured 
by unaided psychic power." 2 

In a similar strain Dr. Walsh says : 

"Of course mental influence cannot affect organic dis- 
ease. A crumpled heart valve can no more be helped by an 
idea than can an amputated limb. An ulcerated lung can no 
more be cured in this way than can an ulcerated eye." 3 

No less an advocate of the power of suggestion than Bern- 
heim on the whole supports this contention. In his work De la 
Suggestion et de ses Applications a la Therapeutique he denies 
that psychotherapy is able to reconstruct damaged tissues of 
the human organism, and declares that suggestion "is almost 
entirely restricted to functional diseases." 4 

1 Catholic Mind, February 8, 1909, p. 31. 

2 Sadler: The Psychology of Faith and Fear (Chicago, 1912), p. 301. 

3 James J. Walsh in the Catholic Mind, February 8, 1909, article: "Psycho- 
therapy," p. 44. 

4 II est vrai que la suggestion est une therapeutique presque exclusivement 
fonctionnelle. 



122 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

The authors of the Emmanuel movement share these views: 
"We believe," writes Dr. Worcester, "in the power of 
the mind over the body, and we believe also in medicine, in 
good habits, and in a wholesome, well-regulated life. In the 
treatment of functional nervous disorders we make free use of 
moral and psychical agencies, but we do not believe in over- 
taxing these valuable aids by expecting the mind to attain 
results which can be effected more easily through physical 
instrumentalities. . . . For this reason we have confined our 
practice to that large group of maladies which are known 
today as functional nervous disorders. Although a sound 
psychical and moral method is a valuable adjunct in every 
branch of medicine, yet, viewed as an independent remedial 
agent, the legitimate sphere of psychotherapy is strictly 
limited. It is in the field of the functional neuroses that all 
its real victories have been won. Here again our conception 
of our mission differs from that of our predecessors. In 
answer to their taunt, 'If you believe in God's power to 
cure disease, how dare you place any limit to that power?' 
we are content to reply : 'We believe God has power to cure all 
disease, but we do not believe God cures all disease by the 
same means. At all events an autlientic instance of recovery 
from organic diseases through psychical means is what we 
are waiting for. While we do not believe that any man knows 
all that is to be known on this subject, or that we are in a 
position to affirm dogmatically what the mind can or cannot 
accomplish, yet we are surely safe in accepting as to this 
the overwhelming weight of scientific opinion, and in con- 
fining our practice to a field in which it is known to be 
efficacious.' " * 

Such restrictions are not, of course, acknowledged by per- 
sons of the stamp of Mrs. Eddy. 

"The author never knew a patient," she declares, "who 
did not recover when the belief of the disease was gone. Re- 
move the leading error and governing fear of this lower mind, 
and you remove the cause of any disease, as well as the 
morbid and excited action of any organ. You also remove 
in this way what are termed organic diseases as readily as 
functional difficulties. 2 . . . The author has cured what is 
1 Worcester-McComb-Coriat: Religion and Medicine (New York, pp. 3-5). 
'Science and Health, p. 377. 



The Fact of Mental Cures 123 

termed organic disease as readily as she has cured purely 
functional disease, and with no power but the divine Mind. 
. . . Working out the rules of Science in practice, the author 
has restored health in cases of both acute and chronic dis- 
ease, and in their severest forms. Secretions have been 
changed, the structure has been renewed, shortened limbs 
have been elongated, cicatrized joints have been made supple, 
and carious bones have been restored to healthy conditions. 
I have restored what is called the lost substance of lungs, and 
healthy organizations have been established, where disease 
was organic. Christian Science heals organic disease as 
surely as it heals what is called functional; for it only re- 
quires a fuller understanding of its divine Principle, to 
demonstrate the higher rule." 1 

Although modern mind-healers scoff at the idea of limiting 
the power of mind, they admit certain limits ; but these are de- 
termined not by our bodily constitution, but by the limitations 
of our mind. Could we but realize the true gnosis, the full 
understanding of the reality of our spiritual nature, no disease, 
they claim, could resist this demonstration. This assertion, 
let us note, is not based on experience, but is a bold profession 
of faith in the supreme reality of mind and in its universal ap- 
plicability to the healing of all disease. The sweeping claims 
of Mrs. Eddy stand only as long as there is question of con- 
sistent theorizing. In practice, her repeated boasts of personal 
success must be largely discounted on the ground that she re- 
mained an indifferent healer, who could not prevent her husband, 
her grandchild and her favorite niece from dying relatively 
young. Moreover, at the end of the Preface of every edition of 
Science and Health she inserts the following note : "The author 
takes no patients, and declines medical consultation." 

Those students of Mrs. Eddy's who took her instructions 
too literally, got themselves occasionally into very trying cir- 
cumstances, not a few deaths resulting from sheer lack of proper 
medical attention. Mrs. Eddy, of course, had an explanation 
for failure as well as for success. When she did not blame it 
on the lack of understanding on the part of patient or prac- 

1 Science and Health, pp. 149, 162. 



124 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

titioner, she blamed it on that mysterious non-entity, called 
Malicious Animal Magnetism. But Mrs. Eddy was not content 
with theory: as she grew older, she grew wiser and when dis- 
agreeable facts could no longer be varnished over with accom- 
modating theory, she flung her theories to the winds and met 
fact with fact. While officially maintaining with all the assur- 
ance of revealed truth that "Christian Science is always the 
most skillful surgeon," she prudently admonished her practi- 
tioners to leave "the adjustment of broken bones and disloca- 
tions to the fingers of a surgeon" and to confine themselves 
"chiefly to mental reconstruction and the prevention of in- 
flammation." * 

In a statement published in the Christian Science Journal 
December, 1902, she advises that "until public thought be- 
comes better acquainted with Christian Science," Christian 
Scientists should decline "to doctor infectious or contagious 
diseases." She warns them earnestly against taking "a case of 
malignant disease," before considering well their ability to 
cope with the case, reminding them "that there are those lying 
in wait to catch them in their sayings" and "that in their prac- 
tice, whether successful or not, they are not specially protected 
by law." 2 Queer physicians these who refuse to doctor infec- 
tious diseases and think twice before they venture to help a case 
of malignant disease! Truly, truth is stranger than fiction! 
After all that Mrs. Eddy has written about the omnipotence 
of Mind in the healing of disease, and against the dangers of 
consulting M. D.'s (doctors of medicine) and employing medi- 
cine, she coolly veers about and incorporates into her Church 
Manual the following by-law : 

Art. VIII, sect. 23: If a member of this Church has a pa- 
tient whom he does not heal and whose case he cannot fully 
diagnose, he may consult with an M.D. on the anatomy in- 
volved. And it shall be the privilege of a Christian Scientist 
to confer with an M.D. on Ontology, or the Science of being. 

1 Science and Health, p. 401. Cf. on this subject Paget: Faith and Works 
of Christian Science, pp. 130-190. Peabody: The Religio-Medical Masque- 
rade, pp. 103-120. Milmine: op. cit., pp. 324-326, 354 ff. 

3 Cf. Snowden: The Truth about Christian Science, p. 237. 



The Fact of Mental Cures 125 

When Mrs. Eddy inserted this concession into the funda- 
mental laws of her Church organization, she must have entirely 
forgotten her former "revealed" statements concerning the 
dire consequences of any diagnosis whatever. As Christ never 
diagnosed, so a Christian Scientist was never to resort to such 
a practice. As all disease was unreal, what would a diagnosis 
profit? "We never read," she says, "that Luke or Paul made 
a diagnosis of a disease, in order to discover some means of 
healing it. Luke never asked if it were acute or chronic." 1 
And still more plainly: "The moral and spiritual facts of 
health, whispered into thought, produce very direct and marked 
effects on the body. A physical diagnosis of disease — since 
mortal mind must be its cause if it exists — generally has a ten- 
dency to induce disease."' 2 

Thus, through the whole gamut of condemnations, medical 
diagnosis is outlawed and execrated as unchristian and danger- 
ous, until Mrs. Eddy herself has recourse to it, and recommends 
it to her students. In like manner she condemned the medical 
profession again and again in arrogant and insulting tones, 
until theoretically and practically she falls back on their assist- 
ance. She summons them to the bedside of her dying husband, 
and grants to her students the privilege of consulting them. By 
this inconsistency, on her own avowal, she has rendered herself 
guilty of fostering "a tendency to induce diseases." It is, 
therefore, evident that her sweeping affirmations are but a 
label to her stock in trade and describe its contents with more 
zest than truth. This trade brings her and her opponents ap- 
preciably nearer together. 

When these deny the possibility of mentally healing organic 
disease, they commonly qualify this statement and render it 
less absolute. Bernheim limits the power of suggestion "almost 
exclusively" to functional disorders, thus allowing a certain 
influence even on organic disease. Sadler, after stating that 
such diseases as can "be wholly produced and completely cured 
by mental influences alone" are, of course, purely functional, 
qualifies this by adding: 

1 Science and Health, pp. 369-370. 

2 Ibid., p. 370. 



126 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

"We are forced to recognize two great classes of physical 
disorders: one, in which the mind is a powerful factor in both 
the cause and the cure; the other — the organic diseases — 
in which the mind exerts but a minimum influence. In addi- 
tion to these two great classes of diseases there may be recog- 
nized a third class of pl^'sical disorders in which the mind 
exerts a var} r ing and uncertain influence, both as to causation 
and cure." x 

In like manner Dr. Walsh acknowledges that 

"with all of the organic diseases there comes a series of sym- 
toms that are often even harder to bear than those due di- 
rectly to the disease itself. These symptoms are the results 
of the discouragement, the depression and the lowered state 
of mental activity which comes with incurable disease. This 
mental depression may be the most important factor in caus- 
ing loss of appetite and various digestive disturbances. It 
may be the most prominent element in that general disturb- 
ance of the patient which makes all the functions of the 
body run at a much lower capacity than they ought to, and 
which, consequently, disturbs general vitality, weakens the 
patient very seriously, and leads to intercurrent disease. All 
of these symptoms may be influenced very much and very 
favorably by psychotherapy.'* 2 

These explanations seem to narrow the discussion down to 
one of terminology. It is admitted, on the one hand, that or- 
ganic disease can be indirectly helped by psychotherapy: mind 
treatment can clear the way, remove the obstacles, and establish 
favorable conditions which either through medicine or through 
nature enable the cure to proceed unchecked. On the other 
hand, it is also demonstrably certain that not all diseases, not 
even all functional diseases, can be fully cured by unaided 
psychic power. 

"The sharpness of this distinction between organic and 
functional troubles," writes Dr. Cabot, "is somewhat blurred 
by the fact that a functional or nervous affection, such as 
insomnia, may lead, both directly and through loss of appe- 
tite, to a loss of weight or to a considerable deterioration in 

Sadler: op. cit., p. 302. 
1 Walsh: op. cit., pp. 44-45. 



The Fact of Mental Cures 127 

the body tissues. Here we have what might be called organic 
disease produced by functional disease, and such organic dis- 
ease as this is often cured by Christian Science or by some 
more rational method of mental healing." 1 

Christian Science, consequently, is not what Mrs. Eddy 
calls it, a panacea for "all the ills human flesh is heir to," and 
the testimonials, printed in the textbook, the Journal, and else- 
where, are at best a thoroughly one-sided presentation of the 
evidence. 

"The vast majority of these testimonials," writes Dr. 
Paget, "are not worth the paper on which they are printed. 
What are kidney trouble, lung trouble, heart trouble, liver 
trouble, eye trouble? They are not chronic nephritis, 
phthisis, valvular disease, cirrhosis and cataract. Bowel 
trouble is ordinary constipation ; stomach trouble is ordinary 
indigestion and aversion from food; spinal trouble is ordi- 
nary backache. These are not testimonies, but testimonials ; 
every advertisement of a new quack medicine publishes the 
like of them. We all know Mr. A and Mrs. B and Miss C 
who bear witness to So-and-So's Pills. They had spinal 
trouble and kidney trouble. There is a rough sketch of them 
doubled up with pain or weeping at the family tea table. And 
it is certain that the pills did them good. . . . Again, many 
of these witnesses are not telling the truth . . . not wilfully, 
but from sheer inability to be accurate. Again, we all know 
that no statement is more inaccurate than the average state- 
ment of what the doctor said. . . . Again, what is the good 
of proclaiming that Christian Science heals diseases which 
get well of themselves. Time heals them." 2 

Hence, Mrs. Eddy's discovery comes to this : she obtained 
from P. P. Quimby her fundamental principles which, as long 
as there was no opposition, she stretched to extremes and em- 
bellished with various adventitious doctrines. Then she posed 
before the world as God's chosen instrument to usher in the 
new era of universal health and general prosperity. When 
defending her system, she is boundless in her pretension of 
curative powers, but when dealing with hard fact and fearing 

1 Cabot: op. cit., p. 473. 

2 Paget: op. cit., pp. 131-133, 






128 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

the arm of the Law, which does not allow unwarranted theories 
to endanger the lives of the people, she compromises with theory 
and covers her tracks as best she can, on the whole, talking 
and acting surprisingly much like the rest of the world who be- 
lieve in real matter and real disease. The theory was made to 
attract believers; the practice was modified to escape its dan- 
gerous consequences. 

As early as 1884 Dr. Townsend of Boston University 
printed the following challenge to Mrs. Eddy: 

"If you, or the president of your College, or your entire 
college of doctors, will put into place a real case of rip or 
ankle dislocation without resorting to the ordinary manipu- 
lation, or without touching it, I will give you $1000. Or if 
you, or your president, or } T our entire College, will give sight 
to one of the inmates of South Boston Asylum for the Blind, 
that sightless person having been born blind, I will give you 
$2000." 

To this challenge Mrs. Eddy replied in the Journal of 
Christian Science under date of February 7, 1885: 

"The article of Prof. Townsend . . . published in Zions 
Herald, December 3, came to my notice not until January 9. 
In it he offered the President of the Metaphysical College in 
Boston, or one of her students, the liberal sum of $1000, if 
she would reset certain dislocations without the use of her 
hands, and $2000, if she would give sight to one born blind. 
Will the gentleman accept my thanks due to his generosity; 
for, if I should accept his bid, he would lose his money. Why? 
Because I performed more difficult tasks fifteen years ago. 
At present / am in another department of Christian work, 
where 'there shall be no sign given them,'' for they shall be in- 
structed in the Principle of Christian Science that furnishes 
its own proof." * 

'Tis a pity Mrs. Eddy did not see fit, either personally or 

through one of her students, to take up the challenge of Dr. 

Townsend, at least as an act of pure charity, and as a means 

of making converts innumerable, seeing it was such an easy 

task for her! 

1 Townsend: Faith-Work, Christian Science and Other Cures (Boston, 
1885), pp. 56-5T. 



CHAPTER VIII 



METHODS OI" MENTAL HEALING 



Mental-healing methods are continually forming. They 
vary with every individual, almost with every cure. Yet, 
through them all runs an unmistakable family likeness marking 
them all with the Quimby impress of thought. The Quimby 
system soon outgrew its original simplicity; like the doctrine 
of evolution it branched out into various systems which all 
tend to become complete philosophies of life. No longer con- 
fined to the treatment of disease, they promise to establish in 
man's life perfect harmony, contentment and happiness. Their 
treatment against disease maintains its place of honor; but 
other treatments, like the so-called prosperity treatment, line 
up beside it. New Thought, in particular, lays great stress 
on the larger aspects of its teaching and on the experiential 
value of the facts of life. 

As this broadens out the underlying principles, so it also 
modifies the current methods of treatment. On the whole, their 
practice is considerably more conservative than their theory. 
In theory they may hold with Mrs. Eddy that food, climate 
and hygiene have nothing to do with the health of man, even 
that any attention paid to hygiene and to climatic conditions is 
full of dreadful dangers ; in practice, they will be quite as sen- 
sitive as the rest of us to the changes in temperature, quite 
as particular about bodily comfort, quite as fully alive to the 
daily need of food. We are still waiting for the Christian 
Science hunger-striker who would be willing to demonstrate the 
truth of his religion by renouncing that scandalously material 
process known as eating. Mrs. Eddy herself took care to 
guard against any such extension of her teaching. "It would 
be foolish," she writes, "to venture beyond our present under- 
standing, foolish to stop eating until we gain perfection and a 

129 



130 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

clear comprehension of the living Spirit. In that perfect day 
of understanding we shall neither eat to live nor live to eat." 1 

Mrs. Eddy was less reserved with regard to hygiene. "The 
less we know or think about hygiene," she declares, "the less 
we are predisposed to sickness." 2 Physical comfort received no 
consideration from her in theory. In practice, however, it is 
well known, that the luxury of Mrs. Eddy's home became a 
scandal to her followers. 3 When she fled from that imaginary 
demon Animal Magnetism to Barre, Vermont, she stayed there 
only a short while, because the town band would not, as re- 
quested, stop playing on the square in front of her house. 4 
Later on, when at Concord, she had her piazza enclosed with 
heavy sailcloth, to protect herself against the unreality of the 
chilly autumn air. 5 Thus the lives of the founder and of the 
whole school of Christian Scientists daily belie in a thousand 
different ways their solemn profession of immateriality, a clear 
proof that whatever truth Christian Science possesses is like a 
tiny grain of gold buried under an immense heap of rubbish. 

But this is the negative side of mental healing. On its 
positive side, it is almost true to say that there are nearly as 
many methods as teachers and practitioners. These methods, 
however, can easily be reduced to a few well-defined types. 
Thomson Jay Hudson classifies them as follows : 

"1. Prayer and Religious Faith, as exemplified in the 
cures performed at Lourdes and at other holy shrines. To 
this class also belong the cures effected by prayer alone, the 
system being properly known in this country as the faith- 
cure and the prayer-cure. 6 

1 Science and Health, p. 388. 

' Ibid., p. 389. 

"Milmine: op. cit., p. 342. "In the Christmas holidays of 1887 Mrs. Eddy 
moved from her dwelling in Columbus Avenue to a more pretentious house 
at 385 Commonwealth Avenue. The fact that some of the members of Mrs. 
Eddy's own Boston Church began to murmur texts about the foxes having 
holes and the birds of the air'having nests . . . augured ill for the year 
that was just beginning." 

4 Ibid., p. 387. "Mrs. Eddy suddenly left Boston, driven from home, so 
she declared, by malicious Mesmerism." 

5 Ibid., p. 411. 

6 For the sake of completeness this passage is quoted in full. We do not 
imply by this that we ascribe to prayer and to shrines no other than merely 
mental efficacy. 



Methods of Mental Healing 131 

"2. The Mind-Cure. — 'A profound method of healing 
which rests upon the suppositions that all diseased states of 
the body are due to abnormal conditions of the mind, and 
that the latter (and thus the former) can be cured by the 
direct action of the mind of the healer upon the mind of 
the patient.' x 

"3. Christian Science. — This method of healing rests 
upon the assumption of the unreality of matter. This as- 
sumed as a major premise, it follows that our bodies are un- 
real, and, consequently, there is no such thing as disease, the 
latter existing only in the mind, which is the only real thing 
in existence. 

"4. Spiritism, which is a system of healing based on the 
supposed interposition of spirits of the dead, operating di- 
rectly, or indirectly through a medium, upon the patient. 

"5. Mesmerism.— This includes all the systems of heal- 
ing founded on the supposition that there exists in man 
a fluid which can be projected upon another, at the will of 
the operator, with the effect of healing disease by the thera- 
peutic action of the fluid upon the diseased organism. 

"6. Suggestive hypnotism.. — This method of healing rests 
upon the law that persons in the hypnotic condition are con- 
stantly controllable by the power of suggestion, and that by 
this means pain is suppressed, function modified, fever 
calmed, secretion and excretion encouraged, etc., and thus 
nature, the healer, is permitted to do the work of restora- 
tion." 2 

Leaving aside for the present the cures of Lourdes and 
other Catholic shrines, and waiving also the question in how 
far these six groups of healing systems are identical and in 
how far they differ, we shall turn our attention to the methods 
employed by Christian Science and New Thought. Both these 
aim directly at curing the soul, confident that a healthy soul 
necessarily means a healthy body. Whether in the abstract 
they admit the reality of the body or not, is immaterial, since 
they agree that disease must be reached from within, not from 
without. Sin and sickness, being exterior manifestations of 
some lurking interior shortcoming, must vanish as soon as this 

1 Definition quoted from the Century Dictionary. 

2 Hudson: The Law of Psychic Phenomena (Chicago, 1893), p. 150. 



132 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

interior defect is cured. Such is their basis for this work of 
reformation. This apparently so grand conception of life, on 
its positive side, sins by attributing excessive powers to the 
soul; and, on its negative side, by denying altogether, or at 
least greatly underrating, the physical basis of life. 

Their methods are largely, though not exclusively, based on 
this false principle. To begin with Mrs. Eddy, we find her 
whole system built on the demand of perfect faith on the part 
of both practitioner and patient. Many of her counsels need 
not be despised : they are such as might be given by any one to 
a prospective nurse. For Mrs. Eddy was above all practical: 
whenever she comes down to hard fact, her theories recede into 
the background, and commonsense takes their place. Theory 
is not forgotten, but hedged in to such an extent by other regu- 
lations that it becomes effective largely through these. Her 
instructions, wisely enough, begin with the mental and moral 
preparation of the prospective healer. Two qualities, moral 
rectitude and gentleness, she strongly inculcates. 

"The metaphysician x should first cast moral evils out of 
himself, that he may thus attain the spiritual freedom, which 
will enable him to cast physical evils out of his patients. . . . 
An ill-tempered and complaining person should not be a 
nurse. The nurse should be full of cheerfulness, faith, light, 
—a believer in God, Truth, Life and Love. . . . The tender 
word and Christian encouragement of an invalid, pitiful pa- 
tience with his fears, and the removal thereof are better 
than hecatombs of gushing theories, stereotyped borrowed 
speeches, and the doling of arguments which are but so many 
parodies on legitimate Christian Science aflame with divine 
Love." 1 

Beautiful words these, which, if Mrs. Eddy had heeded, her 
book Science and Health would either never have been written, 
or would be very different from what it is. 

From these subjective dispositions, essential in a healer, 
Mrs. Eddy passes on to those which must be called forth in the 
mind of the patient, and insists in a very special manner on two 

1 Science and Health, pp. 366 and 395. A metaphysician in Mrs. Eddy's 
terminology is a Christian Science practitioner or healer. 






Methods of Mental Healmg 133 

things : strong faith and complete dismissal of the thought of 
illness. 

"One should never," so she teaches, "hold in mind the 
image of disease, but efface all its forms and types in thought 
both for one's own sake, and for the patient's. Avoid talking 
illness to the patient. Make no unnecessary inquiries rela- 
tive to feelings or disease. Never startle with a discouraging 
remark about recovery, nor draw attention to certain symp- 
toms as unfavorable, nor speak aloud the name of the disease. 
Never say beforehand how much you have to contend with 
in a case nor encourage in the patient's thought the expecta- 
tion of growing worse before the crisis is passed." x 

The reason for these rules of conduct is obvious. Every 
physician knows that lack of courage aggravates disease. Per- 
sons of a nervous, quick, imaginative, and impressionable na- 
ture, obsessed with the fear of death, are placed at a disadvan- 
tage and frequently are unequal to the task of fighting the 
germs of ill-health. Any suggestion as to the gravity of the 
situation lowers to that extent his chances of recovery. What 
is peculiar to Mrs. Eddy's teaching on this subject is not the 
good advice given, but the mold in which it is cast. Even the 
image of disease in the minds of those who attend the sick is 
considered dangerous, irrespective of the fact whether it finds 
utterance in speech or not. But to utter the name of the disease 
aloud, for some unexplained reason, might prove disastrous. 
The same remarks must be made on the counsels of calmness and 
discretion which Mrs. Eddy gives. 

"The sick are terrified by their sick beliefs," she says 
emphatically, "and sinners should be affrighted by their 
sinful beliefs ; but the Christian Scientist will be calm in the 
presence of both sin and disease, knowing as he does that God 
is Love and God is All. 2 ... If they ask about their disease, 
tell them only what is best for them to know, Assure them 
that they think too much about their ailments and have 
already heard too much about that subject. Turn their 
thoughts away from their bodies to higher objects. Teach 
them that their bodies are sustained by spirit, not by matter, 

1 Science and Health, p. 396. 
'Ibid., p. 366. 



134 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

and they will find rest in God, divine Love, more than in 
oblivious sleep." 1 

In addition to these helps to a speedy recovery, Mrs. Eddy, 
true to her principles in this case, recommends also a thorough 
spiritual house-cleaning. 

"Include moral as well as physical belief in your efforts 
to destroy error. Cast out all manner of evil. ... A moral 
question may hinder the recovery of the sick. Lurking error, 
envy, revenge, malice or hate will perpetuate, or even create 
disease. Errors of all sorts tend in this direction. Your 
true course is to destroy the foe and leave the field to God, 
Life, Truth and Love, remembering that God and His ideas 
are real and lasting." 2 

If Mrs. Eddy does not go so far as to recommend the sacra- 
ment of Penance as suitable to her purposes, others have not 
hesitated to point out the supposed physical advantages of this 
Catholic practice. Says Mr. Evans: 

"We ought to ascertain, so far as practicable, the pre- 
cise nature of the disordered mental state, or fixed mode of 
thought, that is the spiritual root of the patient's malady, 
and which has crystallized, through the law of correspond- 
ence, into an organic expression in the body. This should 
be attacked by the psycho-therapeutic force from every 
point of approach. The patient should himself freely aid 
in the spiritual diagnosis of his case. The Roman Catholic 
Church maintains the Divine order, when it makes confession 
a necessary antecedent of absolution, or a being released. 
The sin — the error, the falsity, as the word means — should 
be remitted or sent away." 3 

These are very general considerations, too general and 
sweeping to be of much practical value. Yet they do form the 
gist of Mrs. Eddy's instructions. She must stay in generali- 
ties and allow others to work out the details. It makes it easier 
for her to defend herself in case of failures, and failures in 

1 Science and Health, p. 416. 
'Ibid., p. 418. 

3 Evans: The Divine Law of Cure (Boston, 1881), p. 281. We may note 
the similarity of these views with those of the Psychoanalysts. 






Methods of Mental Healing 135 

the shape of death or relapse were bound to come. For such 
emergencies her prescription was as follows : 

"If your patient from any cause suffers a relapse, meet 
the cause mentally and courageously, knowing that there 
can be no reaction in Truth. Neither disease itself, sin, nor 
fear has the power to cause disease or relapse. ... A re- 
lapse cannot in reality occur in mortal minds, for there is 
but one Mind. . . . If it is found necessary to treat against 
relapse, know that disease or its symptoms cannot change 
forms, nor go from one part to another, for Truth destroys 
it. . . . Instruct the sick that they are not helpless victims ; 
for, if they will only accept truth, they can resist disease and 
ward it off, just as positively as they can the temptation to 
sin. This fact of Christian Science should be explained to 
invalids when they are in a fit mood to receive it,- — when they 
will not array themselves against it, but are ready to become 
receptive of the new idea. . . . If it becomes necessary to 
startle mortal mind, in order to break its dream of suffering, 
vehemently tell your patient that he must awake. Turn 
his gaze from the false evidence of the senses to the harmoni- 
ous facts of Soul and immortal being. Tell him that he 
suffers only as the insane suffer, from a mere belief. The 
only difference is that insanity implies belief in a diseased 
brain, while physical ailments (so-called) arise from belief 
that some other portions of the body are deranged." x 

These methods, taught and employed by Mrs. Eddy, were 
more fully developed by her students, especially by those among 
them who, in point of Church affiliation, followed an independ- 
ent course. All aimed at instilling in the hearts of the sick that 
spirit of faith, trust and confidence which, in the words of Wil- 
liam James, creates a state of healthy-mindedness. Where a 
hypnotic doctor would be satisfied to suggest, under hypnosis, 
states of health, or remedies for disease without ever aiming at 
the reconstruction, on an entirely new basis, of his patient's 
mental life, the modern mind-healer, true to his philosophy, 
would aim mainly at inspiring an entirely changed outlook on 
life. Even Dr. Quimby, though his method was simplicity it- 
self, had this larger aim. 
1 Science and Health, pp. 419-420. 



136 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

"Instead of putting the patient into a mesmeric sleep," 
writes his son, Mr. George Quimby, "Mr. Quimby would sit 
by him, and after giving a detailed account of what his 
troubles were, he would simply converse with him, and explain 
the causes of his troubles, and thus change the mind of the 
patient and disabuse it of its error and establish the truth 
in its place, which, if done, was the cure." x 

Since then methods have multiplied. To bring some sort 
of order into them, we may form them into groups and treat 
successively of what may be termed the tactual or sympathetic 
method, the visual method, the silent and telepathic methods 
and the verbal method. 

Tabooed b} r Christian Scientists and tolerated by Quimby, 
the tactual method finds itself defended by others of the mind- 
healers. It is thus explained by Mr. Evans : 

"There is a tendency in the minds of two persons who 
are in tactual contact towards a oneness of thought and 
feeling. This takes place through a universal principle of 
human nature denominated psychometry but which I prefer 
to call the sympathetic sense. . . . When the hand is placed 
on the head of a patient, at the point of impact, your mind 
comes into contact, as it were, with his mind: for sensation 
is not in the external organ, but in the spiritual organism. 
If he is receptive or, in any degree, impressible, your thoughts 
and healthy emotional states can be transmitted to him or, 
more properly, excited in him, as they do not pass out of 
your mind in coming into his. An impulse towards a healthy 
action can in this way be imparted to any organ of his body. 
This has been established by experiment. Here is the philoso- 
phy of the method of cure by the imposition of hands, which, 
as the primitive, instinctive means of cure, is again restored 
to the healing art. It was practiced by Jesus, the Christ, 
and his disciples, or scholars, which ought to be enough to 
give it currency among those who assume his name and pro- 
fess to copy his life." 2 

The visual method, according to the same author, also has 
Scriptural support. It was employed by St. Peter and St. 

1 Quoted in Dresser's History of the New Thought Movement, p. 39. 

2 Evans: op. cit., p. 273. 



Methods of Mental Healing 137 

John in the cure of the lame man at the gate of the temple when, 
fastening their eyes upon him, they said "look on us" and bade 
him rise and walk. 1 This method need not detain us as it is 
not in common use except perhaps as an auxiliary that may add 
to the effectiveness of other ways of healing. 

The silent method enjoys at present a considerable vogue. 
It consists either in silent meditation, or in silent but direct 
intercourse with the patient's mind, without the aid of external 
bodily organs, according as it is employed in one's own behalf, 
or in behalf of some one else. Mrs. Melinda E. Cramer thus 
elucidates silent meditation: "Going into the silence," she ex- 
plains, "does not fully express what is meant to be conveyed by 
the statement ; it simply means being still mentally for the pur- 
pose of realizing the truth of the power and possibility of 
Being." 2 

Silent healing is described by Evans as follows : 

"When a patient is in a passive and, consequently, impres- 
sive and receptive mood, and with his eyes closed, so as to 
shut out from his mind all sensational images of external 
things, our thoughts may be imparted to him, or, at least, we 
can change the character and direction of his thinking. 
This can be done either when in actual tactual contact with 
him or at a distance. In addition to a state of passivity, he 
should be in a state of sympathy with his physician. These 
conditions being fulfilled, his mind becomes a tabula rasa or 
clean slate on which our thoughts may be written, and even 
without the intervention of spoken words. What we imagine 
and believe and think, will be transferred to him; for the 
stronger and more active mind will control the other. 
Thought is an interior speech or inward word. It is the 
proper language of souls, the universal language of spirit. 
. . . It is the idea, the thought, that imparts to a word a 
sanative virtue." 3 
As an example of this method I select from Dr. Dresser's 
Handbook the following excerpt : 

1 Evans: op. cit., p. 277. 

2 Cramer: Divine Science and Healing (2d ed., San Francisco, 1907), p. 
129. 

3 Evans : op. cit., p. 279. The Psychoanalysts likewise insist on sucli 
a state of sympathy between physician and patient. 



138 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

"The healer, sitting in silence by the patient, would put 
his mind through a process somewhat as follows, addressing 
his thought to the patient's inmost self: 'Peace be with you. 
I come as a messenger of peace to bring freedom and hap- 
piness. Let us realize the peace and goodness of God. You 
are God's child, perfect in ideal, strong, well and free. In 
God there is perfect peace and harmony, no discord at all. 
Let your fears and doubts go that you may know His peace 
and love. There is nothing to fear. Now your fears are 
going; you are becoming restful, trustful and free. You are 
settling down, down into quietness and repose: the disturb- 
ance is subsiding, the tension is lessening. Now God's perfect 
ideal is being realized. You are at peace; you are well; you 
are healed.' " * 

When this silent treatment is undertaken from a distance 
by means of telepathic thought-transference, it is called distant 
treatment. This distant treatment, believed in by practically 
all modern mind-healers, becomes the source of many super- 
stitious fears ; for, if the human mind can influence the minds 
and bodies of others at will, regardless of distances, there is ab- 
solutely no reason why it could not exert an influence for evil as 
well as for good. Of this conviction was born Mrs. Eddy's life- 
long dread of malicious animal magnetism. This faith or, rather, 
blind belief in the possibilities of absent treatment, is an un- 
founded assumption. It is assumed to be true, just as the exclus- 
ive reality and sole existence of God is assumed to be true. Yet 
mind-healers will believe in it with a conviction worthy of a 
better cause. Distant treatment has been developed into a 
regular trade, witness the accompanying reproduction of an 
advertisement printed in Unity, the monthly issued by Unity 
School of Christianit}', Kansas City, Missouri : 

Society of Silent Unity 

Be still and know that I am God 
INSPIRED BY THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH 

Silent Unity represents the Healing Department of the 
Unity School, and it ministers unto those needing help, with- 
1 Dresser: Handbook, p. 61. 



Methods of Mental Healing 139 

out seeing them personally. Jesus Christ spoke the Word 
and healed the centurion's servant and others. 

We are glad to help all who have faith in the Power of 
God, no matter what the need may be, whether physical, 
financial, mental or spiritual. If everything else has failed 
we will take your case. "With God all things are possible." 

Silent Unity will pray for you and instruct you how to 
pray to the Father in secret, and the Father who sees in 
secret will reward you openly. 

The expenses of the Silent Unity work are met entirely 
by the free will offerings of those to whom we minister. "Give, 
and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down, 
shaken together, running over." 

All letters are strictly confidential. 1 

UNITY SCHOOL OF CHRISTIANITY 

SILENT UNITY DEPARTMENT 

We come now to the verbal method. It needs no explana- 
tion as to the form it takes, and can best be illustrated by pay- 
ing attention to its contents. It goes without saying that this 
subject covers a wide range of ideas. Yet the one common aim 
is constant and is well characterized by the title chosen by 
Mr. Horace Fletcher for one of his books on mental science, 
namely Happiness as Found in Forethought Minus Fear- 
thought. 2 No less constant is the one common way that leads 
to this coveted goal, described by Dr. Sadler as the Masterkey 
to Mental Healing, namely faith, meaning thereby psychologi- 
cal faith which comprises optimism, contentment, self-confi- 
dence, certainty, trust and other cheerful dispositions. 3 

All mental healing, consequently, consists in denying audibly 
or otherwise the existence, and, thereby, destroying the dispo- 
sition, of fear, and in affirming motives of trust, self-confidence, 
self-exaltation. The following treatment is taken from Fill- 
more's well-known book entitled The Science of Being and Chris- 
tian Healing in which through six successive stages correspond- 
ing to the six days of Creation he professes to lead men out of 

''■Unity (Magazine), November, 1920, p. 451. 
3 Chicago, 1897. 
8 Loc. cit., p. 106, 



140 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

the land of servitude and error into perfect harmony with 
Truth. These six stages are : 

"1. The mind perceives and affirms truth to be a universal 
Principle. 

"2. Faith in the working power of Truth is born to con- 
sciousness. 

"3. Truth takes definite form in mind. 

"4. The Will carries Truth into acts. 

"5. Discrimination is quickened and the difference between 
Truth and error discerned. 

"6. Everv thought and word is expressed in harmony with 
Truth." 

The following invocation is to precede each day's treatment : 

"I acknowledge thy presence and power, blessed Spirit, 
and in thy Divine wisdom now erase my mortal limitations, 
and from thy pure substance of Love bring into manifesta- 
tion my world according to thy perfect law." 

The following treatment for Tuesday is submitted as a 
sample of the whole process of reasoning to which the mind is 
subjected. Its positive and negative aspects are indicated by 
the words deny and affirm. 

"Deny — I deny the belief that I have inherited disease, 
sickness, ignorance or any other mental limitations whatso- 
ever. I deny all belief in evil; for God made all that really 
is and pronounced it good. Therefore, no such deception as 
a belief in evil can darken my clear understanding of Truth. 
Those with whom I associate can no longer deceive me with 
their words of consideration and sympathy. I can no longer 
deceive myself with such weakness. 

"Perish from my world these silly beliefs of darkened 
ignorance. I am now free from them all, and by my powerful 
word hereby destroy them wholly. 

"Affirm — God's Life is my life and I vibrate with harmony 
and wholeness. I am free with the knowledge that all is 
good ; I am, therefore, perfectly whole and well." 

Thus the author leads his client through a different exercise 
every day until by the end of the week he is ready to declare 






Methods of Mental Healing 141 

and believe that he is unlimited in power. Here are a few short 
extracts of Saturday's treatment: 

"Deny — . . . I now in the sight and presence of Al- 
mighty God unformulate and destroy by my all-powerful 
word every foolish and ignorant assumption that may impede 
my march to perfection. My word is the measure of my 
power. I have spoken and it shall be so. 

"Affirm — . . . I am unlimited in my power and have 
increasing health, strength, life, love, wisdom, boldness, free- 
dom, charity and meekness now and forever. ... I am one 
with, and now fully manifest, Infinite goodness and mercy. 
Peace floweth like a river through my mind, and / thank thee, 

God, that I am one with thee." 

Sunday's enigmatical treatment covers just part of a line 
and reads : "Be still and know that I am God." x 

These citations show better than any words of ours could 
do the peculiar mentality of the modern mind-healer. Its pan- 
theistical strain is obvious to even a casual observer. The 
Christian mind cannot be fitted into it. The necessity of a re- 
translation of our popular hymns into this New Tongue is a 
consequence ; the sentiments of our saints and doctors are grossly 
erroneous in the light of these new discoveries. For instance, 
that well known children's rhyme which begins with the words 
Now I lay me down to sleep, receives the following version in 
the textbook of the Colorado College of Divine Science. 

Now I lay me down to sleep 
I know that God his child does keep 
I know that God, my life, is nigh : 
I live in him, I cannot die. 

God is my Health; I can't be sick 
God is my strength, unfailing, quick; 
God is my All, / know no fear 
Since Life, and Love, and Truth are here. 

"If you will learn these lines," the author adds, "and re- 
peat them every night, you will find help in them." 2 

1 Fillmore: Christian Healing, pp. 261-266. Italics are mine to bring out 
more clearly the author's characteristic views. The same applies else- 
where, unless otherwise noted. 

a James, Fannie B.: Truth and Health (3d ed., Denver, 1905), p. 51. 



142 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

An objection also is considered. "Suppose," says the ob- 
jector, "a child is sick. How can she say 'God is my help, I 
can't be sick?' " The author replies: "Let her say it then ten 
times instead of once. She is sick because she has forgotten that 
God is her health. Claiming God as her health will remind her 
of the Truth and drive away the false belief. This is the 
prayer of faith that heals the sick." 1 

We have seen enough of these methods to understand their 
general drift and specific character. They are not mere make- 
shifts, to be administered when needed, and relegated to oblivion 
when not wanted ; they are rules of life, and as rules of life they 
appeal to many. This spiritualized life must be lived daily ; at 
stated hours a loyal menticulturist is expected to take his men- 
tal medicine, if this expression be allowed. How deeply this 
affects their whole life, permeates their mentality, and influences 
their actions, is manifested in their cheerful dispositions and 
frequently enough in their improved health. These results are 
not affected by the fanciful character of their religious and 
philosophical principles. In the case of some of them at least, 
the theoretical denial of the individuality of the soul leaves 
them, theoretically, no mind to cultivate, and the denial of the 
existence of the material world leaves them, theoretically again, 
no body to cure. Thus, always theoretically speaking, their 
systems are self-destructive, and their practices meaningless. 

Their unguarded actions, however, are a refutation of their 
philosophical beliefs and a vindication of our common sense 
philosophy. For us, in truth, as for all unsophisticated men, 
the reality of the material world is beyond dispute. It is the 
touchstone of all our concepts and ideas. No reasoning that 
begins with denying the reality of our senses, or the objectivity 
of their data, can meet with our approval. Nor can the fol- 
lowers of the modern mind movements point to results as the 
proof of the truth of their philosophical tenets ; they would 
first have to show that no other explanation for their alleged 
cures is valid. But we are convinced that another explanation 
does exist, and to prove that, we now turn to a consideration 
of the interrelations of mind and body. 
'James: op. tit., p. 51. 



CHAPTER IX 

MIND AND BODY 



A thorough study of the interrelations of mind and body, 
though of great interest to the modern mind, cannot be under- 
taken in this connection. We propose, however, briefly to re- 
view the traditional Catholic teaching on this subject. For it 
is our firm conviction that it alone, among all the various 
psychological systems, takes squarely into account the full 
bearing of all the phenomena of life. Confronted with the 
problem of matter and spirit, the philosophers of the golden age 
of Scholasticism — unlike our modern idealists, — did not cut the 
Gordian knot by denying the reality of matter, or by making it 
a purely mental state. Such extreme views may please certain 
minds that love to live in paradoxes, but will find no favor with 
the common people, to whom of all realities matter is the most 
obvious. 

With the best minds of classical antiquity, the Schoolmen 
opposed a materialistic conception of the world with as much 
determination as the most pronounced idealist; but, at the 
same time, they no less carefully avoided ultra-idealism. Mat- 
ter for them was real, and so was mind. But reality did not 
mean identity. Thinking matter or material mind were both 
inconceivable, an evident contradiction in terms. But the real- 
ity of both mind and matter were primary facts, not dependent 
on any speculation, but plain postulates of reason which no man 
in his right senses could venture to question. 

The reader will probably be surprised to learn how the 
Scholastics reconciled their teaching concerning a material 
body and a spiritual soul by maintaining the closest possible 
union of mind and body. Body and soul, in their view, are sub- 
stances essentially different from each other, but so closely 
united that the concept of a living body includes that of the 

143 



144 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

soul. In spite of its essentially spiritual nature, the soul is not 
contrasted with the body as with something hostile or foreign. 
When spiritual writers depict in glowing colors the uninter- 
rupted struggle between man's material and spiritual parts, 
and, with St. Paul, declare that there is a law in their members 
fighting the law of the mind and captivating them in the law 
of sin, they do not run counter to the scholastic teaching, which, 
far from denying this struggle, explains it on the very ground of 
the intimate union of the material and the spiritual elements 
in man. 

1. For them the soul is the "forma substantialis" of the 
body, its energizing power, even its architect and organizer, 
so that the body is actuated and becomes a human body only 
through the energizing and organizing action of the soul. This 
action never ceases ; it, so to say, perpetually creates the body 
which it permeates, communicating to it whatever faculties the 
latter possesses. The soul is the force that organizes the material 
out of which the body is constructed ; that indwells and vivifies 
these material elements, and works in, with, and through them. 
The intellectual soul is, therefore, the source, not only of its in- 
tellectual activities, but even of what we conceive to be specifically 
bodily functions, like nutrition, sense-perception, and locomo- 
tion. In the words of St. Thomas : 

"We must assert that the intellect, which is the principle 
of intellectual operation, is the form of the human body. For 
that whereby primarily anything acts, is the form of the 
being to which the act is to be attributed. . . . Now it is 
clear that the first thing by which the body lives, is the soul. 
. . . For the soul is the primary principle of our nourish- 
ment, feeling and local movement, and likewise the primary 
principle whereby we understand." 1 

2. In man there is none but an intellectual soul, no in- 
ferior, no merely bodily form that would give the body an inde- 
nt. Thomas: Sumrna Theologica, Pars I, q. 76, art. 1. "Necesse est dicere 

quod intellectus qui est intellectualis operationis principium sit humani 
corporis forma. Illud enim quo primum aliquid operatur est forma ejus 
cui operatio attribuitur. . . . Manifestum est autem quod primum quo 
corpus vivit, est anima. . . . Anima est primum quo nutrimur et sentimus 
et movemur secundum locum, et similiter quo primo intelligimus." 



Mind and Body 145 

pendent existence. This is true to such an extent that an in- 
tense absorption, let us say in some intellectual pursuit, largely 
inhibits the exercise of other faculties, as for instance, hearing 
and seeing. A man, intensely interested in the reading of a 
book, will fail to observe what is going on around him. In 
such cases, the whole consciously controllable energy of the 
soul is riveted on the one object and everything else becomes 
blurred. In the words of St. Thomas : 

"We do not say that there are two souls in one man . . . 
one, animal, by which the body is animated and which is com- 
mingled with the blood ; the other, spiritual which obeys the 
reason; but we say that it is one and the same soul in man, 
that both gives life to the body by being united to it, and 
orders itself by its own rule." * 

3. By holding this view, the Scholastics took issue with 
the Platonists, who, confirmed idealists that they were, could 
not admit that man's spiritual soul would stoop so low as to 
perform the very lowest bodily functions. 

"Plato held that there were several souls in one body, 
distinct even as to organs, to which souls he referred the 
different vital actions, saying that the nutritive power is in 
the liver, the concupiscible in the heart, and the power of 
knowledge in the brain. . . . This is proved impossible by the 
fact that when one operation of the soul is intense, it im- 
pedes another, which could never be the case, unless the 
principle of action were one. . . . 

"We must therefore conclude that in man the sensitive 
soul, the intellectual soul, and the nutritive soul are nu- 
merically one soul. . . . Thus the intellectual soul contains 
virtually whatever belongs to the sensitive souls of brute 
animals, and the nutritive souls of plants." 2 

1 Summa Theologica, Pars I, q. 76, art. 3. "Neque duas animas esse 
dicimus in homine uno, unam animalem qua animetur corpus et immixta 
sit sanguini, et alteram spiritualem quae rationem ministret; sed dicimus 
unam et eandem esse animam in homine quae et corpus sua societate 
vivificat et semetipsam sua ratione disponit." 

2 Ibid., Pars I, q. 76, art. 3: "Plato posuit diversas animas esse in 
corpore uno, etiam secundum organa distincta quibus diversa opera 
vitae attribuebat dicens, vim nutritivam esse in hepate, concupiscibilem in 
corde, cognoscitivam in cerebro. . . . Apparet hoc esse impossibile per hoc 
quod una operatio animae, cum fuerit intensa, impedit aliam, quod nullo 



146 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

Here we have a principle of the highest importance for our 
present purpose. It will go far towards explaining all the 
cures we have enumerated in a previous chapter. For the same 
soul is intellective, sensitive, and nutritive all at once; it con- 
ceives through the intellect, perceives through the senses, and 
builds up the body it inhabits by means of nutrition, and 
yet it is essentially one and indivisible. From this it naturally 
follows that the closest possible union, the most intimate rela- 
tions, exist between the rational soul and the material body. 
No accidental bond unites soul and body ; the soul itself is the 
bond, the only link ; it is the proprietor of the body in as much 
as the life of the body is its own, communicated to the body, 
but not lost to itself. Not only does it give life, but it gives 
an animal existence as well, to that organized body with which 
it finds itself united. 

4. The soul is, consequently, the only controlling and 
manufacturing power in the human compound. 

"Whence," says St. Thomas, "we must conclude that 
there is no other substantial form in man besides the in- 
tellectual soul; and that the soul, as it virtually contains 
the sensitive and the nutritive souls, so does it virtually con- 
tain all inferior forms (or powers), and itself alone does 
whatever the forms do in other things. . . . Therefore, while 
remaining one and the same, it perfects matter according 
to the various degrees of perfection. For the same essen- 
tial form makes man an actual being, a body, a living being, 
an animal and a man." x 

5. A consequence of this is that the soul finds itself in its 
entirety in the whole body and in every one of its parts. Yet, 
since some of its faculties entirely transcend the body, they do 
not reside in the body, but in the soul ; others, on the contrary, 

modo contingeret, nisi principium actionum esset per essentiara unum. 
Sic ergo dieendum quod eadem numero est anima in homine sensitiva et 
intellectiva et nutritiva. . . . Sic igitur, anima intellectiva continet in sua 
virtute quidquid habet anima sensitiva brutorum, nutritiva plantarum." 

1 Summa Theologica, Pars I, q. 76, art. 4: "Unde dieendum est quod 
nulla alia forma substantialis est in nomine nisi sola anima intellectiva, et 
quod ipsa, sicut virtute continet animam sensitivam, ita virtute continet 
omnes inferiores formas, et facit ipsa sola quidquid imperfectiores formae 
in aliis faciunt." 






Mind and Body 147 

can only be exercised through those parts of the body which are 
fitted for that purpose, hence they are properly said to reside 
in the body. 

"Of the powers of the soul," says St. Thomas, "some 
reside in it, in so far as it transcends the whole capacity of 
the body, namely the intellect and the will ; hence such powers 
are said to reside in no part of the body. But others are 
common to soul and body. Hence it is not to be said of any 
of these powers that it finds itself wherever the soul is, but 
only that it finds itself in that part of the body which is 
fitted out for the operation of such a power." 1 

This theory of the Scholastics avoids the shoals both of 
materialism and of false idealism. It explains intelligibly both 
the spiritual side of man and those relations between the psychic 
and the physical which remain unexplained in other systems. It 
helps to understand many phenomena which more one-sided 
philosophies gloss over, and which remain standing objections 
to their theories. Let us, then, pass on to inquire into the 
consequences flowing from this substantial union of body and 
soul. 



The soul being the active principle in man, transcending 
the body by means of some of its faculties, but residing in it 
and depending on it by means of others, it virtually contains 
in itself two essentially distinct, but by no means independent, 
groups of powers. The higher of these may be comprehen- 
sively called mind, or in more abstract terminology, the psychic; 
the lower one may be designated under the term the physical. 
The higher group includes intellection and volition; the lower 
one, sensation and nutrition. Somewhere between these two 
groups, under the direct influence of both, the scholastic phil- 
osopher would place the phantasia or imaghnativa, fancy or 

1 Summa Theologica, Pars I, q. 76, art. 8: "Potentiarum animae quaedam 
sunt in ea secundum quod excedit totam corporis capacitatem, scilicet intel- 
lects et voluntas; unde huiusmodi potentiae in nulla parte corporis esse 
dicuntur. Aliae vero potentiae sunt communes animae et corpori. Unde 
talium potentiarum non oportet quod quaelibet sit, in quocumque est, sed 
in ilia parte corporis, quae est proportionata ad talis potentiae oper- 
ationem." 



148 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

imagination. Without imagination it is impossible for the 
intellect to think, as it is impossible for the imagination to be 
active without a previous or subsequent sensation. The former 
truth is asserted by St. Thomas in the following passage : 

"It is impossible for our intellect, in the state of our 
present life in which it finds itself joined to an impressionable 
body (passibili corpori), to understand a thing as really 
existent, except by turning to the mental images (phant as- 
mat a). . . . The reason for this is that the faculty of 
knowledge is proportioned to the thing to be known. . . . 
Now the proper object of the human intellect is the essence 
(quidditas) or nature existing in a body. But it belongs 
to the very concept of this nature that it should exist in an 
individual . . . hence the nature of a stone or of any ma- 
terial object cannot be fully or truly known, except in so far 
as it is known to exist in a particular thing ; but the particu- 
lar we apprehend through sense and imagination. Hence, 
it is necessary that the intellect, in order to know its proper 
object, should turn to the mental images." 1 

Of greater importance for us, at present, is the truth that 
imagination is built on sensation and always accompanied by 
sensation. 

"The body is naturally changed by the imagination of the 
soul," says St. Thomas, "and so much more changed, the 
stronger the soul's imagination. ... If the imagination be 
strong, the body obeys naturally in some things ... for 
instance, as regards alteration in heat and cold and their 
consequences. For the passions of the soul whereby the 
heart is moved, naturally follow the imagination, and thus, 
by commotion of the spirits the whole body is altered. . . . 
but other corporeal dispositions, which have no natural rela- 
tion to the imagination are not transmuted by the imagina- 

1 Summa Theologica, Pars I, q. 84, art. 7: "Impossibile est intellectum 
nostrum, secundum praesentis vitae statum quo passibili corpori coniungitur, 
aliquid intelligere in actu, nisi convertendo se ad phantasmata. . . . Huius 
autem ratio est quia potentia cognoscitiva proportionate cognoscibili. . . . 
Intellectus autem bumani qui est coniunctus corpori proprium objectum est 
quidditas sive natura in materia corporali existens. . . . De ratione autem 
huius naturae est quod in aliquo individuo existat . . . unde natura lapidis 
vel cuiuscumque materialis rei cognosci non potest complete et vere nisi 
secundum quod cognoscitur ut in particulari existens; particulare autem 
apprehendimus per sensum et imaginationem." 



Mind and Body 149 

tion, however strong it is . . . for instance, the shape of 
hand or foot or such like." x 

This alteration of the body, at times hardly perceptible, 
at other times extends very far. 

"By the apprehension of the human soul," says St. 
Thomas, "the human body is changed as to heat and cold, as 
appears when a man is angry or afraid. Indeed, this change 
sometimes goes so far as to bring on sickness and death." ' z 

Thus we find the philosophical and scientific principles of 
the modern systems of healing clearly and comprehensively 
stated by the Schoolmen. True, they were chary about prac- 
tical inferences flowing from them. So many occult practices, 
so many strange and unreasonable hypotheses, were then, as 
now, blazoned forth as facts in the name of science, that only 
specialists, men well versed in medicine and psychology, could 
see their way dimly through this labyrinth of facts and fancies. 
The Scholastics condemned as divinatio (sorcery) or vana ob- 
servantia (vain observances) whatever appeared to them as 
plainly superstitious ; but what was believed to be capable of a 
natural explanation was permitted to pass uncondemned until 
time and observation should clearly manifest its nature. In 
these matters the early Scholastics showed themselves eminently 
judicious, limiting themselves to the enunciation of broad prin- 
ciples that could serve as a guide and safeguard to all inquirers 
into the mysteries of Nature. Men were left free to use their 
natural powers and abilities in the pursuit of natural effects; 
but to introduce anything superstitious was condemned as 
sinful. 

1 Sumrna Theologica, Pars III, q. 13, art. 3: "Ad imaginationem animae 
naturaliter corpus immutatur; et tanto magis, quanto magis anima fuerit 
fortis imaginationis. . . . Imaginationi, si fuerit fortis, naturaliter obedit 
corpus quantum ad aliqua, puta . . . quantum ad alterationem quae est 
secundum calorem et frigus et alia consequentia, eo quod ex imaginatione 
consequenter natae sunt consequi animae passiones, secundum quas movetur 
cor, et sic per commotionem totum corpus alteratur; aliae vero dispositiones 
corporales quae non habent naturalem ordinem ad imaginationem, non 
transmutantur ab imaginatione, quantumcumque sit fortis, puta, figura 
manus vel pedis vel aliquid simile." 

a Ibid., Pars I, q. 117, art. 3: "Per apprehensionem animae humanae 
immutatur corpus humanum ad calorem et frigus . . . et quandoque etiam 
haec immutatio pervenit usque ad aegritudinem et mortem." 



150 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

"If natural objects," says St. Thomas, "are simply em- 
ployed to bring about some effects, for which they are be- 
lieved to have some natural virtue, it is not superstitious or 
illicit ; but if there be added to this either some characters or 
some words or any other vain observances which manifestly 
do not possess naturally any efficacy, it will be superstitious 
and illicit." x 

Such principles were faithfully adhered to in the Church, 
and found their application in the works of theologians and 
physicians. Their necessity is clearly evinced by the facts of 
history. For the lack of this sound basis, the new impulse given 
to these studies at the time of the Renaissance failed to dis- 
criminate between what was based on natural law and what was 
mere fancy, between what was certain and what probable or 
doubtful. There came to be made the wildest claims regarding 
the curative power of either mind or body. A look, a word, an 
application of some indifferent matter by a privileged person, 
came to be looked upon as a powerful vehicle of either good or 
evil. This opened the door for many superstitious beliefs and 
practices, the hidden forces of nature being made to sponsor 
many a fraud in the name of science, even as in our days the 
extravagant claims of many a patent-medicine vender and so- 
called miracle worker are unhesitatingly accepted as the last 
word in medicine. Since herbs, stones, animals, contain cura- 
tive powers, so they argued, why should not similar virtues 
exist in men that were born under favorable conditions? 

All this goes to show that science and superstition are close 
neighbors ; superstition will always appeal to the hidden, the 
mysterious, the unknown forces of nature, to gain thereby some 
show of respectability. But the extravagant fancies of the 
superstitious cannot invalidate the careful conclusions of the 
student of nature. That the powers of mind have been exag- 
gerated will not justify our rushing to the opposite extremes. 

1 Swmma Theologica, Pars II, Il/ae q. 96, art. 2, ad primum: "Si sim- 
pliciter adhibeantur res naturales ad aliquos effectus producendos, ad quos 
putantur naturalem habere virtutem, non est superstitiosum vel illicitum; 
si vero adiungantur vel characteres vel aliqua nomina vel aliae quaecumque 
observations quae manifestum est naturaliter efficaciam non habere, erit 
superstitiosum et illicitum." 



Mind and Body 151 

Monism, be it materialistic or idealistic, will not give us the 
true explanation of the forces at work in and around us. The 
truth is to be found in that golden mean which does not give 
too much either to matter or to mind. 

"Everybody knows from experience," says Dr. Walsh, 
"how a violent passion affects the whole body. Anger, fear, 
disgust, worry, passionate love, and a number of similar men- 
tal states, registrate themselves automatically throughout 
man's physical body. So, likewise, dread of disease, and, 
generally speaking, any excessive preoccupation for bodily 
health and vigor has an effect on the whole system, which 
suffers and is rendered weak under the weight of a preoccu- 
pied mind." 

So true is it that sickness, sorrow, and sin ramify into each 
other, as would the branches of trees in close proximity. Even 
very ordinary states of mind may be reflected in man's bodily 
constitution, and, vice versa, ordinary physical conditions may 
affect man's spiritual nature. Certain mental states are fa- 
vorable to a general healthy development; others, on the con- 
trary are injurious. 

Enough has been said to enable us to judge intelligently 
concerning the admitted fact of successful mental cures. On 
general principles, the possibility of mental healing cannot be 
rejected. The fact itself cannot be denied. Just as the mind 
can be the real cause of real disease, so we know that it can be 
the real cause of real cures. The question, however, remains 
whether the cures now under discussion are, as a matter of 
fact, explainable on this hypothesis, or whether we have to 
adopt any of the other explanations that have been proposed. 
This will be the subject-matter of the next chapter. Provi- 
sionally we may indorse the following sentiments of Mark 
Twain : 

"No one doubts, certainly not I, that the mind exercises 
a powerful influence over the body. From the beginning of 
time the sorcerer, the interpreter of dreams, the fortune 
teller, the charlatan, the quack, the wild medicine-man, the 
educated physician, the mesmerist and the hypnotist have 



152 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

made use of the client's imagination, to help them in their 
work. They have all recognized the potency and availability 
of that force. Physicians cure many patients with a bread 
pill: they know that where the disease is only a fancy, the 
patient's confidence in the doctor will make the bread pill 
effective. Faith is the doctor. Perhaps that is the entire 
thing. It seems to look like it. In old times, the king cured 
the king's evil by the touch of the royal hand. He frequently 
made extraordinary cures. Could his footman have done it? 
No ! — not in his own clothes. Disguised as a king, could he 
have done it? I think we may not doubt it." x 
1 Mark Twain: Christian Science, p. 34. 






CHAPTER X 

EXPLANATION OF MENTAL CURES 



It is with a great display of earnestness that Mrs. Eddy 
ascribes Christian Science cures to the direct action of God. 
Neither drug nor doctor, neither nature nor hygiene, neither 
regular rules of life nor confidence, neither mesmerism nor 
spiritism, neither mortal mind nor faith nor will power, nor any 
material cause whatever, according to her, effects a cure, but 
solely the all-pervading, ever-active, all good, and all real, 
Divine Mind, which is more a negation of disease than a cause of 
cure. For there is no such thing as sickness ; there are only 
symptoms, beliefs and illusions of sickness, and he that rids him- 
self of these, rids himself also by that very fact of all disease. 

Christian Science explains its cures as follows : All things 
come from God, not only indirectly — that no one will deny — 
but directly and immediately; they are the thoughts of God, 
divine ideas. Now, it would be a sacrilege, so argues the Chris- 
tian Scientist, to ascribe to God the three-fold error of sin, 
sickness, and death; hence, it follows that these are mere illu- 
sions of mortal mind which must cease as soon as we cease to 
believe in their reality. "If mankind would relinquish the be- 
lief that God makes sickness, sin and death, or makes man cap- 
able of suffering on account of this malevolent triad, it would 
sap the foundations of error and insure its destruction." 1 

The Christian Scientist explains the cessation of evil by 
stating that evil never existed. 2 He does not deny the exist- 

1 Science and Health, p. 357. 

2 "The origin of evil is the problem of ages. It confronts each genera- 
tion anew. It confronts Christian Science. The question is often asked, 
If God created only the good, whence comes the evil? To this question 
Christian Science replies: Evil never did exist as an entity. It is but a 

153 



154 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

ence of the belief m evil, despite certain phrases that seem to 
imply this ; on the contrary, it is precisely this belief that is 
the cause of the world's misery and wretchedness, and not vice 
versa. In the logical order, the belief is first, and the wretched- 
ness follows, but in the real order the belief itself is the wretch- 
edness. 1 

Destroy, therefore, this belief, and you insure for yourself 
perpetual health, happiness and immortality. If you can sin- 
cerely believe that there is no sickness, because man is incapable 
of sickness ; that there is no sin, because sin is unreal ; and that 
there is no death, because God, Life, could not create death — 
this triad of errors will vanish, according to the promises of 
Mrs. Eddy, and leave the world in the condition of a veritable 
Paradise. 

The apparent simplicity of this remedy is appalling. This 
simplicity, however, disappears when it is realized that it im- 
plies the denial of all that is most obvious to the senses. To 
the Christian Scientist nothing is real, everything is unreal and 
evil except God and His ideas, which, being like God spiritual, 
must exclude matter and mortal mind, and all that is condi- 
tioned by them, namely sin, sickness and death. 2 Such ideas 
bring their own refutation with them. Vainly does Mrs. Eddy 
insist on the errancy of the senses that put us in touch with the 
material world, on the impossibility on the part of God, a 
Spirit, to create matter, the "antipodes" of Spirit, and on the 
incompatibility of the goodness of God with the existence of 
anything that is evil. These are not arguments ; they are 
assertions with nothing to show their truth beyond the bare 

belief that there is an opposite intelligence to God." Miscellaneous Writ- 
ings, p. 346. 

1 "The sinner is not sheltered from suffering from sin ; he makes a great 
reality of evil, identifies himself with it, fancies he finds pleasure in it, 
and will reap what he sows; hence the sinner must endure the effects of 
his delusion until he awakes from it" (Ibid., p. 14). 

"We should blush to call that real which is only a mistake. The founda- 
tion of evil is laid on a bebef in something beside God" (Science and 
Health, p. 92). 

2 "The error which saith Soul is in body, Mind is in matter, and good 
is in evil, must unsay it, and cease from such utterance; else God will 
continue to be hidden from humanity, and mortals will sin without know- 
ing that they are sinning ... all because of their blindness, their false 
sense concerning God and man." Science and Health, p. 204. 



Explanation of Mental Cures 155 

word of the Founder of Christian Science. Such a complete 
knowledge of the Divine Nature as Mrs. Eddy and her follow- 
ers pretend to possess has not only not been vouchsafed to man ; 
it is contrary to both reason and revelation. 1 

Mrs. Eddy's final argument is always an appeal to the suc- 
cess of her healing methods ; but plainly, if there is any other 
explanation of these cures, if there are parallel cases of healing 
which Mrs, Eddy both acknowledges and disowns — acknowl- 
edges inasmuch as they are real cures, and disowns, because in 
her judgment, they are not complete cures — if mental healing 
is not peculiar to Christian Science and New Thought, the ar- 
gument loses all its force and is no more than a petitio prmcipu* 
We may, therefore, safely pass on to an examination of the 
other explanations that have been advanced to account for 
mental healing, in general, and for the cures of Christian Sci- 
ence and New Thought in particular. 



The problem that presents itself first is whether the modern 
mind-cures are natural or supernatural, whether they are due 
directly to natural causes or to supernatural beings. The pos- 
sibility of a supernatural intervention on the part of God in be- 
half of believers that in good faith implore his help, cannot be 
gainsaid. Nor is the possibility excluded that He might allow 
evil spirits to seduce through wonderful cures such as are will- 
ing to be seduced. Jesus foretold that "there shall rise false 
Christs and false prophets and shall show great signs and won- 

ir fhe question of the existence of evil has been treated frequently, but 
to some minds it may always remain somewhat of a mystery. Catholic 
philosophy broadly speaking agrees with the Christian Scientists to the 
extent of declaring evil a non-entity, but it differs from them in main- 
taining that it is not the mere absence of being, but the privation of 
some being that should be present. It is, therefore, not a mere nothing, 
but it is a defect in something. Catholic philosophy does not deny the 
existence of evil, nor assert its incompatibility with the Goodness of God. 
True, God cannot be the author of moral evil: his sanctity prohibits this. 
But He can be the author of what to us seems evil without being absolutely 
evil. Moral evil does not come from God, but from the creatures; 
physical evil, including sickness and death, may come from God not as some- 
thing evil, but as something accidentally connected with something good, 
past, present or to come. The whole question can be studied with profit 
in St. Thomas: Summa Theologica, Pars I, qq. 48 and 49. 



156 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

ders in so much as to deceive (if possible) even the elect." This 
prophecy creates not merely a presumption, but a certainty 
that, at sometime or other, wonderful events will take place that 
must not be ascribed to God. Both possibilities consequently 
demand at least brief consideration, especially as both of them 
have been mentioned as possible solutions. 

In harmony with the former supposition Father Searle says- 
of the cures of Christian Science: 

"It is, of course, possible that in some of them the belief 
of the patients in the power of God to heal the sick without 
the help of drugs or surgery, which power every Christian 
acknowledges, may have been rewarded by Him ; and such a 
result would be specially likely to occur in a materialistic age 
like this, when the possibility of it is so generally denied, 
not only by absolute infidels, but by non-Catholic Christians, 
who have been brought up to believe that the age of miracles 
has passed. Even incipient faith might be so rewarded. 
For they were not test cases, as it were, in which the issue 
lay between Eddyan ideas and normal Christian ones. . . . 
Outside of such test cases miracles are not necessarily re- 
stricted to the one true and complete faith ; as we see, for 
instance, of the Syro-Phenician woman, recorded in Mark, 
chapter 7." x 

Arguing from a diametrically opposite viewpoint, Father 
Woods concludes his study on Christian Science with these 
words : 

"We see, therefore, that the cures claimed for Christian 
Science, as a general rule, can be proved improbable in in- 
dividual instances, and, in the gross, false; or else, they can 
be explained by perfectly similar causes. Still, it is neither 
impossible nor improbable that its votaries may be able, in 
the future, or even now, to bring forward some, not to be 
accounted for in the natural way. It must be remembered 
that, as has been shown, Christian Science is not a harmless 
craze. It is one of the most diabolical of anti-Christian 
systems, and in it the visible promoters are but tools of the 
prime mover, the devil. He goes about seeking to deceive 



Searle: The Truth about Chrittian Science (New York, 1916), p. 






Explanation of Mental Cures 157 

men, and would gladly use all the powers of his angelic na- 
ture, to snatch souls from Christ. He is restrained in this, 
but he is not absolutely prevented. To try our faith, some 
manifestations are permitted him. But of these we have been 
warned." * 

These explanations, both tentatively proposed as possibili- 
ties by our authors and advanced as the true solution by 
others, 2 are only acceptable, if no natural explanation exists. 
The only safe rule to follow in these matters is that a natural 
explanation must receive precedence over a supernatural one, 
because it is impossible to prove the supernatural character of 
anything where a natural explanation suffices. Though the 
supernatural may exist where its existence cannot be proved, 
yet it is at least very improbable that it exists in cases where 
natural forces explain and where no special character of the 
fact calls clearly for the intervention of supernatural beings. 
We, therefore, turn our attention to natural explanations. 



The cures of Christian Science have frequently been identi- 
fied with mesmeric or hypnotic cures. The temptation to do 
this lay near owing to its historical connection with mesmerism. 
Mrs. Eddy frequently had to defend herself against this identi- 
fication, and she did this, as always, with spirit and an assump- 
tion of superiority that stood her in good stead with her fol- 
lowers. Hypnotism became the enemy which she attacked at 
every opportunity. Her followers were forbidden under threat 
of excommunication to study hypnotism. 

"Sooner suffer a doctor infected with smallpox to be about 
you," she writes on one occasion, "than come under the 
treatment of one that manipulates his patient's head and is a 
traitor to Science. . . . There is but one way of doing wrong 
with a mental method of healing, and this is mesmerism, 
whereby the minds of the sick may be controlled with error 
instead of Truth. . . . For years we have tested the benefits 

1 Woods: in the Catholic Mind, May 22, 1918, p. 239. 

2 Not a few Protestant pamphleteers have represented Christian Science 
as the work of the devil. 



158 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

of Truth on the body, and knew no opposite chance for do- 
ing evil through a mental method of healing, until we saw it 
traduced by an erring student and made the medium of error. 
Introducing falsehoods into the minds of the patients pre- 
vented their recovery, and the sins of the doctor were visited 
on the patients many of whom died because of this." * 

Let us admit hypothetically this distinction. Between hyp- 
notic cures and modern faith-cures there is a similarity; for 
both have their origin and source in the mind. Similarity, 
however, is not identity : both Christian Science and New 
Thought differ from hypnotism by the fact that they do not 
induce any hypnotic sleep. Both, however, agree with it in so 
far as they address themselves at times to what has been called 
the subconscious or subliminal mind, that nondescript entity 
which may perhaps be best paraphrased as the mind at rest, de- 
prived of its normal conscious and personal direction and intel- 
lectual guidance, but subject to other influences, be these an un- 
conscious influx from other faculties of the soul, or be they the 
work of other persons. The possibility that certain factors, 
active in lvypnotism, are also brought into play in modern mind- 
cures, cannot be altogether excluded. 

But let us examine another possibility, that which arises 
from the efficacy of suggestions even in the waking state. It is 
a matter of everyday experience that in man's ordinary con- 
cerns, without any special theatrical display and mystification, 
suggestions constantly influence the lives of men in some fash- 
ion or other. A look, a gesture, a word, a presence, may arouse 
or calm you, may inspire you with courage and noble aims or, 
on the contrary, depress you with a general apathy and weari- 
ness of life. Joy and sorrow, love and hatred, courage and 
pusillanimity — to mention only a few of the many affections 
of the human heart — are constantly open to, and under the 
sway of, conscious or unconscious suggestions. These affec- 
tions, if prolonged or intense, may have a considerable bearing 
on bodily health and physical well-being. One group makes for 
good health, another for disease. 

Quoted in Milmine: op. cit., p. 164. The student herein referred to is 
Richard Kennedy. 



Explanation of Mental Cures 159 

"I shall not now," writes Dr. Worcester, "rehearse the 
long list of physiological changes which can be effected by 
suggestion. I will mention only a few which have occurred 
under my own observation. The temperature of the body can 
be elevated or lowered, and the pulse quickened or retarded. 
Perspiration can be produced; the actions of the intestines 
can be stimulated, resulting in the removal of constipation. 
. . . Many forms of pain depending on functional or trophic 
disturbance can be removed, and parts of the body rendered 
insensible to pain. The sense of hearing in certain forms of 
deafness can be quickened. Some forms of eczema can be 
removed, and some forms of asthma can be checked at once. 
Stammering can be controlled, and nervous dyspepsia can 
frequently be cured. To this short list which is taken almost 
at random from our clinical notes, Bernheim, Forel, Bramwell 
and Dubois add many other similar examples in support of 
the physiological action of suggestion. They prove beyond 
question, that our subconscious mind acts through the in- 
strumentality of our whole nervous system, both cerebro- 
spinal and sympathetic, and that through this complex mech- 
anism it can effect important changes in our physical func- 
tions." X 

Active suggestion, however, on the part of the would-be 
healer, would be ineffective, did not the mind of the patient re- 
spond to this treatment, either consciously or unconsciously. 
The treatment requires an active, personal, subjective coopera- 
tion transforming a suggestion into a belief with a soothing, 
quieting effect on the nervous system. There is no transfer of 
power from the healer to the patient: the former merely sug- 
gests confidence and healing thoughts, but the results are di- 
rectly due, not to him, but to the patient's improved outlook. 
A little sympathy goes a long way towards putting on his feet 
the man who is to all appearances down and out. 

But if a patient could do for himself what another can do 
for him, that means, if he could rouse himself and react against 
mental depression, then, in many cases, this sort of auto-sug- 
gestion would be followed by exactly the same results. Writes 
Dr. Worcester: 

1 Worcester-McComb-Coriat : Religion and Medicine, p. 40. 



160 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

"At bottom suggestion and auto-suggestion are the same. 
The mechanism of the brain which carries into effect the 
suggestion offered in a hypnotic or in a waking state, carries 
into effect also auto-suggestion. In the one as in the other 
case there is the same mental state of heightened suggesti- 
bility, and common to both are the same morbid and healing 
effects. Auto-suggestion may be defined, then, as a self- 
imposed narrowing of the field of consciousness to one idea, 
by holding a given thought in the mental focus to the exclu- 
sion of all other thoughts. This statement, of course, does 
not solve the problem of auto-suggestion; it is intended 
simply to express what is meant by the word. The thing 
itself, the ps3^chical process covered by the word, remains — 
and it is likely to remain for a long time — the standing riddle 
of psychology. What it is in its ultimate nature, how it 
operates and what are its physiological or nervous con- 
comitants, no man knows. That it is a reality, however, and 
a reality of the highest psychical and ethical significance, 
no man ma} 7 doubt." 1 

The terms suggestion and auto-suggestion need perhaps a 
word of explanation. To the popular mind they represent some- 
thing artificial and unreal, something rather of self-deception 
than of self-expression. Such a restriction of meaning is not 
warranted by the word: true or false, normal or abnormal, sug- 
gestion always remains suggestion and applies to all cases in 
which mind influences mind. It is commonly enough held to be 
of no avail as a therapeutic or curative agent, until it has be- 
come the property of the subconscious mind. If this means that 
suggestion acts independently of consciousness, so that our con- 
scious states are unaware of the modes of its activity, or even 
may be a hindrance to an effective suggestion, the statement 
cannot be questioned. But if it is made to convey the impres- 
sion that the suggestion itself must be conveyed unconsciously, 
the modern mind-healers can point to their practice as a refu- 
tation of this meaning. 

The subconscious mind contains not only previously ac- 
quired knowledge, but also all unconscious states of the soul, 
whether or not these will eventually rise into consciousness. It 
1 Worcester-McComb-Coriat: op. cit., p. 93. 



Explanation of Mental Cures 161 

includes, on the one hand, feelings of joy and contentment, the 
sense of satisfied desires, the sentiment of happiness, the pleas- 
ure of being alive and well, and, on the other hand, their oppo- 
sites: discontent, dreads and fears of all sorts, melancholy, 
worry, anger, distrust, hatred, the belief of being ill and the 
fact of being ill-at-ease and out of place : these are a few of the 
many emotions that exert no mean influence over the health of 
the individual. 

That all kinds of suggestions, deliberate or otherwise, have 
a decisive influence in molding the states of the subconscious 
mind, is a commonplace which requires here no more than a 
bare mention. Little does it matter whether the suggestion 
come from without or from within, whether it be intentional or 
not, whether it be brought home under ordinary or under extra- 
ordinary conditions, whether it be intense, even violent, or, on 
the contrary, feeble, but persistent. If there is not, on the part 
of a strong personality, a conscious and deliberate counterac- 
tion through will power, morbid states of mind will prove in- 
jurious, while pleasant thoughts and contented desires will 
prove beneficial to health. 



This leads up to an investigation of what might be called, 
in the absence of a better name, the mechanism of mental heal- 
ing. Whatever be men's views concerning the nature of the 
faculties of the soul, all must distinguish between cognitive, 
affective and appetitive acts. Are these equally effective in 
man's physico-psychical life? Is an act of the understand- 
ing, as Mrs. Eddy would have it, the direct and only agent for 
mental, moral and physical health and well-being? Is the will 
a hindrance rather than a help? Do the affections have any 
part in preserving health, in causing and curing disease? 
These problems need to be looked into, though the treatment 
of them must be necessarily brief. 

For Mrs. Eddy the human will is something radically evil. 
It is "but a product of belief," "an animal propensity, not a 
faculty of the Soul." It is "blind, stubborn and headlong and 



162 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

cooperates with appetite and passion. Thence arises its evil. 
Thence also comes its final powerlessness, since all power be- 
longs to God, Good." * 

This conception of the human will is in line with the Chris- 
tian Science philosophy of the absolute All-ness of God. The 
belief in a free human agent with power to act for good or for 
evil would, indeed, be out of place there. Consequently, these 
assertions concerning the nature of the human will are worth 
just as much and just as little as the philosophy on which they 
depend. It may be, of course, that they have yet another foun- 
dation. For in spite of the fact that Mrs. Eddy had renounced 
Calvinism, her views of the total depravity of human nature in 
general and of the human will in particular are Calvinistic and 
seem to be a relic of earlier Calvinistic training. 

Men of science take issue with Mrs. Eddy's diatribes on the 
human will. The most ordinary observation is sufficient to 
disprove the now antiquated contention of man's total de- 
pravity; the human will is not half as bad as the Reformers 
represented it to be. And when there is question of the will 
influencing bodily health and vigor, there is now an ever increas- 
ing group of men that present the will, almost in the same light 
in which Mrs. Eddy presents the understanding, as a panacea 
for all human ills. 2 These exaggerations are not likely to be 
wholly false ; underlying them, there must be a foundation of 
truth which alone makes them possible. In fact, Dr. James J. 
Walsh, in his book entitled Health Through Will Power, has 
shown how the will or strong determination to live has some- 
times lengthened life beyond all expectation, and how it helps 
even in such serious organic diseases as tuberculosis and cancer. 
A good illustration of the assistance that will power lends in 
the curing of the alcoholic habit is given by Dr. Austin O'Malley 
in his Cure of Alcoholism. Of 35 patients treated in a hos- 

1 Science and Health, p. 490. 

2 Works on the cultivation of the will for all kinds of concerns are 
very numerous. We may mention Haddock's Power-Book Library, the first 
and most important volume of which was in 1917 in its 135th edition. Its 
title is Power of Will (Meriden, Conn., 1907). Patterson's The Will to be 
Well (New York, 1901). Barrett, S. J.: Strength of Will (New York, 
1915). We may recommend Walsh, Health Through Will Power (Boston, 
1920) and Religion and Health (Boston, 1920). 



Explanation of Mental Cures 163 

pital where they were confined chiefly against their own will, 
21.2 per cent remained abstinent after eighteen months, while 
78.8 per cent reverted to drunkenness. On the contrary, of 
375 patients who voluntarily submitted to the same treatment 
in a private hospital, 87.8 per cent remained sober, and only 
12.2 per cent relapsed. 1 

Important as are the functions of the will in human economy, 
even in so material an aspect as physical health, yet they must 
not be exaggerated. The will is important in so far as it exer- 
cises a certain control, direct or indirect, over other faculties. 2 
It can induce the mind to adopt cheerful curative dispositions ; 
it can command the removal of obstacles that are in the way 
of a permanent cure ; it can order the act of faith which accepts 
whole-heartedly the new philosophy of life, thus wielding un- 
doubtedly a great influence in the regaining and conserving of 
health. Yet, this it does rather as the physician that prescribes 
than as the remedy that cures. 

The will is also important, because, although it is the direc- 
tive faculty, it is itself quite open to suggestion and to out- 
side influences. It is the door through which the re-education 
of the inner life is made possible; hence the insistence with 
which psychoanalysts demand the good will and sympathy of 
their patients. On the other hand, it is equally true that if 
conscious effort under the influence of the will is sometimes 
useful, it is more frequently an impediment to a favorable turn 
of the disease. The will is, therefore, often of doubtful benefit, 
and experimenting with it may result in more harm than good. 3 

This brings us to the intellect or cognitive faculty, which 
word is here taken in a broad sense as the faculty which receives, 

^'Malley, The Cure of Alcoholism (St. Louis, 1913), p. 142. 

2 "In concluding the consideration of the will, it may be said that the 
great fact to be borne in mind in regard to the range of its operation is 
that, while it cannot influence (unless in a few rare cases) tie organic 
functions directly, it can indirectly through its employment of other 
mental forces, and can exert immense influence over the irregular move- 
ments of the muscles and automatic cerebral action." Tuke: Influence of 
the Mind upon the Body in Health and Disease (London, 1872), p. 350. 

3 Dr. Pierre Janet admits that Charcot's experiments at La Salpetriere 
resulted in an unskillful training in disease. "Charcot's hypnotism with 
its three phases . . . was never anything but a cultivated hypnotism." 
Janet: Les Medications psychologiques (Paris, 1919), Vol. I, p. 169. 



164 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

weighs and classifies images and thoughts, supplied either by 
the external world through sense perceptions, or by our inner 
world of instinctive and temperamental experience. In this 
sense, the cognitive faculties comprehend not merely the intel- 
lect, but perception of mental images, conception and associa- 
tion of ideas, judgments and reasoning processes, memory and 
imagination. Mrs. Eddy ascribes all her success to understand- 
ing, restricting the meaning of this word to signify exclusively 
the adoption of, and belief in, her theories concerning the spir- 
ituality, the one-ness and goodness of God and the unreality of 
everything else. It goes without saying that we ascribe no 
special virtue to these concepts, and that we take the word un- 
derstanding in its ordinary connotation. 

Of singular interest for our present study is the fact that 
the intellect perceives things as either good, bad or indifferent. 
If it were not so, the intellect would probably have no influence 
whatever over bodily health. For experience shows that what 
the intellect perceives as a present good, invigorates, stimu- 
lates, restores and quickens the vital powers of man, while, on 
the contrary, what it believes to be a present evil, naturally de- 
presses, saddens and frequently sickens him. 1 It matters not, 
as far as bodily health is concerned, whether these beliefs are in 
conformity with intellectual Truth : if the mind is convinced be- 
yond cavil or doubt that it is in full possession of the true and 
the good, it is in the best possible condition for enjoying 
excellent health. 

It is under this general concept of intellection that we must 
place the subordinate concept of imagination. The word has 
been purposely avoided so far, because but too often the popu- 
lar mind associates it with the unreal. People speak of imagi- 
nary disease and of imaginary cures as of such that have no 
reality. Cures, according to that view, occur because in the 
first place the disease itself was only imaginary, that means 
unreal. How far this is from being the truth could be demon- 
strated by numberless examples. Imagination can be, and often 

1 An exception to this is the ease when a joyful news so strongly affects 
the nervous system, and, through it, the action of the heart that it takes 
away life. Man's powers of endurance are limited in every direction. 



Explanation of Mental Cures 165 

is, the cause of very real bodily ailments, and so likewise, imag- 
ination can be, and often is, the cause of very real cures. As 
Dr. Dubray succinctly puts it in his excellent Introductory 
Philosophy: 

"The importance of imagination, both for good and for 
bad, can hardly be overestimated ; it is a useful, yet danger- 
ous power. . . . Imagination exercises a great influence on 
the health of the organism, because ideas are not only repre- 
sentative, but also motor. Many illustrations of this could 
be given. Do we not see frequently imaginary ills leading to 
real sickness? To imagine that you are sick is one of the 
best ways to become truly sick, and to avoid thinking of your 
real sickness frequently proves to be a powerful help in the 
cure. The use of an appropriate remedy is in itself very 
beneficial, but the conviction that it is beneficial and that 
it will produce a certain result makes it twice as effective. 
Imagination without the remedy may even produce thq 
desired result. Cases might be cited of persons who felt sure 
they had taken a certain medicine, and indeed experienced 
the result of it, and who later found the pill which, in fact, 
they had forgotten to take. There is a better chance for the 
man who has made up his mind to get well than for the one 
who imagines that he will die, and despairs." x 

Far from being a new discovery the knowledge of this power 
of the imagination belongs, so to say, to the traditions of the 
School. The teaching of St. Thomas has already been outlined 
at some length. A few centuries later, the famous Jesuit writer 
Martin Delrio (1551-1608) gives us an instructive glimpse into 
the scientific mind of his period regarding the powers of the 
imagination. 

"In this all agree that the power of the imagination is 
very great, and since this power can either be regarded in 
relation to the body of him who imagines, or in relation to 
the body of some one else, we must inquire separately into 
each case. All agree that the imagination has a very power- 
ful influence on the body of him who does the imagining. . . . 
As to other bodies, some hold that the power of the imagina- 

1 Dubray: Introductory Philosophy (Longmans, New York, 1912), p. 79. 



166 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

tion extends exceedingly far, so that it could fascinate or 
cure persons even at great distances. . . ." x 

Another testimony to the belief of past ages in the power 
of the imagination will be of more than ordinary interest. In 
his monumental work De Servorum Dei Beatific atione, Pope 
Benedict XIV (1675-1758) discusses at great length the ques- 
tion how to discriminate real from merely apparent miracles. 
Laying down as a basic principle that we must not call miracu- 
lous what can be explained by natural forces, he gives the fol- 
lowing conclusions of his painstaking inquiry into the extent 
of imagination : 

"It first appears," he says, "that certain diseases, spring- 
ing from the imagination, can be cured naturally by the 
power of the contrary imagination. . . . Secondly, it ap- 
pears that the imagination can often cause purgations and 
vomitings through which the sick man regains his health; 
. . . Thirdly, it appears that the natural power of the 
imagination can extend so far as to suppress for a time the 
sting of the pains that affect the body. . . . Fourthly it ap- 
pears that even in grave diseases the imagination can help 
along the cure which, however, will not be sudden, but grad- 
ual. . . . Finally, it even appears that perhaps at times dis- 
eases can be cured instantaneously by the power of the 
imagination, but that such a cure is not permanent, and that 
a relapse will follow." 2 

1 Martin Delrio: Disquisitiorvwm Magicarwm libri sex (Munich, 1624), p. 
14: In eo conveniunt omnes, imaginationis vim esse maximam; et quia vis 
haec considerari potest vel quoad corpus ipsius imaginantis, vel quoad 
corpus alterius, ideo de utroque seorsim disquirendum. Conveniunt omnes 
quoad corpus proprium imaginantis plurimum in illud posse. . . . Quoad 
corpus alienum nonnulli censent imaginationis vim se longissime porrigere, 
adeo ut possit etiam remotiora fascinari vel sanare. . . . 

2 Benedict XIV: De Servorum Dei Beatificatione, etc. (Romae, 1749), 
lib. IV, pp. 526 ff.: Primum dicendum esse videtur morbos quosdam, ab 
imaginatione ortos, viribus contrariae imaginationis naturaliter tolli posse. 
. . . Secundum dicendum esse videtur ab imaginatione saepe purgationes et 
vomitus causari posse ex quibus aeger sanitatem consequatur. . . . Tertio 
dicendum esse videtur posse vim naturalem imaginationis eo usque se 
extendere ut impetum dolorum qui corpus afficiunt ad tempus reprimere 
valeat. . . . Quarto dicendum esse videtur posse imaginationem in gravibus 
etiam morbis sanitati prodesse, non momento tamen, sed paulatim obtin- * 
endae. . . . Dicendum tandem esse videtur, forsitan posse aliquando morbos 



Explanation of Mental Cures 167 

This analysis of the case, made long ago by Benedict XIV, 
can hardly be improved upon even in our own days. And yet 
the imagination does not seem to be the immediate factor in 
mental cures. It is only in so far as it arouses sense affections 
that it possesses any healing influence. Thought can be con- 
ceived as neutral, taking sides neither one way nor the other. It 
is thus that an egotist may view the concerns of others for whom 
he feels no special interest. But not so the affections. The 
affections directly and immediately link the spiritual to the 
animal man, the mental faculties to the bodily elements. They 
are the personal reflections of the mental states, stronger in 
some, less so in others. By means of their stimulating effect on 
the nervous system, and through it on the heart, they permeate, 
so to say, the whole organism and predispose it, as the case may 
be, either to sickness or to health. Thus, strong feelings, 
especially when frequently repeated, or when well-nigh continu- 
ous, are bound to reverberate throughout the body and have 
a marked effect on the general state of health. 

The heart was long considered the very seat of emotional 
life. This conception has entered into the language of all na- 
tions. Every one speaks of men of large, mean, ardent, faint, 
strong hearts to indicate their personal characters. Even 
though modern science has instructed us as to the real consti- 
tution of the material heart, and properly describes it as a 
muscle, it must not be forgotten that it is a muscle sw generis, 
unique in its kind, with functions all its own. Through it pulses 
the life blood in a never ceasing rhythm, thus feeding at every 
second every section of the human organism. Long before 
there is even a trace of the brain in the embryo, the heart is 
formed and begins its work which will not cease till the soul 
departs. This sensitive organ is peculiarly open to affective 
impulses. Like a delicate needle it responds unconsciously to 
the varying impressions of the mind, and transmutes them, so 
to say, into material values. Thus it still remains preeminently 
the organ of the affections, and serves directly the interests of 

momento sanari vi imaginationis, sanitatem tamen non durare, sed recidivam 
aut metastasim sequi. . . . 



168 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

mental cures, as it is also directly responsible for diseases that 
have their root principally in the mind. 1 
To quote Dr. Sadler: 

"It is evident that faith and fear are able profoundly to 
influence the nerve centers which regulate and maintain heart 
action. The action of the heart is most natural and regular 
when it is least thought of. The care-free mental state 
favors natural heart action. On the other hand, fear and 
every form of mental anxiety interfere with the natural ac- 
tion of the heart, in common with the action of all the other 
vital organs. . . . The healthy heart beats quietly and regu- 
larly when the mind is at peace and free from fear. Faith 
is the ideal and natural mental state, so far as healthy heart 
action is concerned. Any agitation of the mind almost im- 
mediately produces a conscious thumping of the heart 
against the chest wall. The relation between the mental state 
and the heart muscle is direct, and the response of the heart 
muscle to mental disturbance is immediate, well defined, and 
clearly established." 2 



Now let us apply these considerations to the modern mind- 
cure movements. They must originate a real revolution in the 
minds of their followers. They must banish forever all dis- 
content, since the fundamental tenet of their new religion is the 
optimistic doctrine that God Who is All-in-all is the author of 
all and infinitely good. The thought even of the possibility of 
sickness cannot be tolerated, because this would be a violation 
of one of the principal tenets of the newly found faith. This 
changed mode of life, with the changed frame of mind, the 
setting of all worries at defiance, the giving up of medicine, 
the deliberate quietus put on the nerves, the continual mental 
discipline, all this brings about a gradual improvement and, 
finally, a real cure of real and not merely imaginary diseases. 
On its negative side, this changed outlook on life does away 
with those many mental disorders which weigh like an incubus 

*Cf. Walsh, in Catholic Mind, February 8, 1909, p. 41, article "Psycho- 
therapy." 

a Sadler, The Physiology of Faith and Fear, p. 118. 



Explanation of Mental Cures 169 

on many a wretched soul, and on its positive side, it quickens 
and brightens life by considerations that render it full of cheer 
and happiness. 

The results are of the most gratifying kind and add to the 
hopes engendered by the new faith. As Miss Reed graphically 
puts it : 

"Deep-rooted in the heart of humanity is the conviction 
that it is God's original purpose that man should express 
human perfection ; and if only we can set aside a few annoy- 
ing facts of history, and the still more disquieting burden of 
personal experience, and see ourselves at once transformed 
into paragons of virtue and unerring expressions of divinity, 
surely, this conception must be both tranquilizing and stimu- 
lating. 

"Such is the mental revolution which follows conversion 
to Christian Science. This happy consciousness of personal 
superiority is maintained by continual mental discipline. 
There is no suggestion of hypnotism about this, and it is 
unfortunate when their results are ascribed to a condition in 
which will-power is so conspicuously absent. In case after 
case the phenomena of healing by Christian Science disprove 
the theory, so generally accepted, that the subconscious 
mind is in more intimate relation to the functions of the 
body than the normal supraliminal mind; for they demon- 
strate that, where the reason is convinced of supernormal 
power or the impossibility of personal danger, the physical 
expressions of this conviction are as definite as under hyp- 
notism. 

"Let us now think of the physical effects of the Negations 
and Affirmations of a Christian Scientist. Take the case of 
a lady whose whole thought as well as that of her entire 
family is centered upon her physical condition, perhaps a 
truly pitiable one, and whose mental life is one of genuine 
terror: her mind concentrated on the possible deadly effect 
of each mouthful of food; afraid to try and live without 
drugs, yet thrown into a state of apprehension by each new 
prescription; afraid of the breath of fresh air, though con- 
vinced that her death is imminent because of the lack of it — 
such a patient (and what physician is not acquainted with 
this lady) decides to try Christian Science. She soon realizes 



170 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

that the first thing to do is to live up to the theory that 
there is no reality behind her former fears, and this she pro- 
ceeds to do. Her mental determination would be of no thera- 
peutic value, but the results which logically follow are of 
stupendous importance. 

"The bath chair attendant is dismissed (there is often 
the most heroic courage exhibited in these first efforts) and 
regular exercise is taken; sufficient food is eaten, unsalted 
by tears and unaccompanied by dread. As she does not 
now acknowledge any cause for self-reproach or anxiety for 
herself or any one else, her sleep is sound and, therefore, re- 
freshing. If we are told that such a convert has in a few 
months grown to look years younger, why on earth should 
we doubt it, when the physical explanation is so obvious? 

"This practice of leading a normal life is not a spasmodic 
one, for she is undaunted by the actual pain which results, 
and both denies and ignores the reality. Every physician 
knows how trammeled Nature is by the self-limitations im- 
posed by patients because of the discomfort experienced as 
the result of effort. This element of interference is wholly 
eliminated by the practices of the Scientist, and Nature 
which perhaps for years has been struggling to restore phys- 
ical poise, but has been bafHed at every point by the paralyz- 
ing effect of mental conditions, now finds itself working under 
the most ideal habits of mind and body. 

"The body is so thankful to be relieved of this mental 
interference that it does not mind in the least that, in order 
to accomplish this, its very existence is hourly consigned to 
extinction. Whether the disease from which such a person 
has suffered is functional or organic, is irrelevant, so far as 
possible improvement is concerned. Nature makes no distinc- 
tion in her efforts ; were this not true, the physician's work 
would end with the commencement of structural changes. 
Up to the hour of death, there is always the chance that in 
spite of seemingly insurmountable obstacles, the vital power 
of restoration may respond to assistance and, if not entirely 
overcome the disease, at least prolong life." 1 

This long citation is not only applicable to Christian Scien- 
tists, but also to the followers of the New Thought movement. 
1 Reed: Christian Science and Contrasting Christian Truth, Vol. Ill, 
S. B. 8. 



Explanation of Mental Cures 171 

Their faith in a very literal sense contributes to make them 
whole. This accounts in no small degree for their extraor- 
dinary success. What appealed to the people is neither Mrs. 
Eddy's philosophy nor her religion, but the promise of being 
cured. The cures themselves really rest on an entirely different 
foundation; but many people do not take the trouble of dis- 
tinguishing between the two. The new mind-movements promise 
to cure; at the same time they offer an explanation of their 
cures and assert that the cure is conditioned by their explana- 
tion. If the cure really takes place, the unreflecting multitude 
will accept the explanation along with the cure without any 
further ado. They are like a crowd eagerly watching a con- 
juror perform his tricks and accepting his explanation of how 
he does them, when, as a matter of fact, this explanation only 
served to distract their attention from what he was doing in 
reality. So also in the modern mind-cure movements fact and 
theory must be carefully kept apart. The facts we are ready 
to admit, but we maintain that the explanation of the cure 
does not lie with the systems that exploit the cure, but must 
be sought in certain natural principles. 



CHAPTER XI 



THE RELIGIOUS TENETS 



It has been seen that Mrs. Eddy held out religion as a bait 
that might make Quimbyism acceptable to the masses. This 
statement must not be taken to mean that Mrs. Eddy con- 
sciously commercialized religion for the mere purpose of suc- 
cess in her undertaking. True, she had the ambition to become 
a religious founder; she gloried in the hope that church bells 
might one day ring out her birthday, and repeatedly boasted 
that she was writing a bible: but so complex are the workings 
of the human mind that it is difficult to say to what extent 
the desires of the heart produced real conviction in the mind, 
and how far conviction exultingly anticipated success. Mrs. 
Eddy probably enough believed in her own teaching; she prob- 
ably was convinced that Mind and God were one and the same 
and the only reality; she may even have persuaded herself 
(however unbelievable this may seem to us) that she was the 
divinely chosen instrument for establishing a new and more 
complete revelation. She no doubt believed in the possibility of 
mental cures; she must also be credited with sufficient shrewd- 
ness to realize the importance of religion in such an under- 
taking as hers. All her natural abilities were thus enlisted for 
the natural success of a natural cause. Religion came in as a 
means, but not merely as a means, but also as an end. For Mrs. 
Eddy's religious bent was such that it could not but find a 
prominent place in her system of healing. 1 

The same remarks may apply to the New Thought move- 
ment. Though it forms no distinct and united church organiza- 
tion and lays no claim to a new revelation, yet its basis is dis- 
tinctly religious. Most of its followers accept a sort of Liberal 
*Cf. Miscellaneous Writings, p. 311; Milmine: op. cit., p. 138, 182. 
172 






The Religious Tenets 173 

Christianity, speak of God with great unction, and hold funda- 
mentally the same beliefs as the Christian Scientists. We can- 
not help calling attention here to a curious anomaly. While 
apparently holding a most prominent place in these modern 
mind movements, religion, in reality, occupies a very inferior 
and secondary rank. If its prominence comes from the fact 
that it serves as a basis for their healing methods, its inferiority 
is due to the same fact ; for it constantly remains subordinated 
to the supreme purpose of healing and mental culture. 

This is at once its strength and its weakness. The prag- 
matist, for whom results alone count, and who makes practical 
usefulness the supreme test of truth, must endorse Christian 
Science and New Thought for the good they effect. But if 
results alone are not an infallible guide to truth, such a test 
is unacceptable. For those who believe that God has not left 
his creatures in mental darkness and anarchy, but has revealed 
to them His holy Will and has safeguarded this revelation 
against all danger of perversion, for such there can be but 
one measure of the truth of a religion, namely whether it con- 
forms to the standard of the Gospel of Christ. 

The modern mind-movements are not Christian. The most 
fundamental tenets of Christianity are slurred over, misrepre- 
sented, ignored or completely rejected. And those doctrines 
that have found a quiet nook within the sacred precincts of 
Scientism are mostly out of place ; they appear like a stranger 
within the gate unheeded, unwelcome and unnecessary. They 
are there, because they were in the minds of the Christian Scien- 
tist, before he became an adept of Christian Science, and it 
was deemed either useful to retain them, or not worth while 
to reject them. There is one, and just one, religious doctrine 
that really seems essential in these modern cults, namely the 
doctrine of the spirituality and universality of God. To be- 
lieve in God as the one reality and as essentially good is the 
summary of a modern mind-healer's creed. That in spite of 
their contempt of all doctrine these reformers should try to 
graft their metaphysical theories on the tree of historical Chris- 
tianity was to be expected. To do otherwise would have been 



174 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

to invite relative failure from the very start. 1 Of love for the 
Church or the churches there was none. Mrs. Eddy never 
pretended to make Christian Science acceptable to the sects, 
but, on the contrary, compelled her followers to break with 
their former religious affiliations. 2 The same more or less open 
hostility is evident in practically all prominent leaders of the 
movement. None of them evinced any preoccupation to in- 
vestigate the revealed truth fairly and historically. They 
merely set up the word of a new master or leader against the 
teaching and leadership of Christ. And if they did found new 
religious organizations that kept the name Christian, their 
main aim, it would seem, was to have a religion to offer to their 
prospective disciples which, by retaining the Christian name, 
would leave them under the illusion that they had not given up 
what they prized most. 

With the possible exception of her idea of the inexistence of 
matter and evil, Mrs. Eddy took her Christianity as she found 
it in New England Unitarianism, with which it is in the main 
identical, neither better nor notably worse. With the liberal 
and modernistic school of theology she proposes to serve Truth 
"independent of doctrines and time-honored systems." 3 The 
open contradiction contained in this statement escapes them. 
People may reject such or such a doctrine or set of doctrines, 
but to reject all doctrinal teaching and still pretend to serve or 
teach truth is an impossibility. Positive doctrines may be re- 
placed by negative ones ; this doctrine may be replaced by that 
one; but doctrinal teaching as such cannot be abolished. Chris- 
tianity, in particular, must always be doctrinal, or cease to be 
Christian. 

a Cf. Dresser: History, p. 312: "The New Thought has doubtless played 
a part in emancipating people from the old theology. The connection 
between the New Thought and religious liberalism has been more pro- 
nounced since 1895. The first people to leave the Church and espouse 
mental healing were formerly orthodox. But more Unitarians and other 
religious liberals changed over after a time. The implied theology of the 
New Thought has always been liberal." 

2 Church Manual, Art. 4, sect. 2: "This Church will receive a member of 
another Church of Christ, Scientist, but not a church member from a 
different denomination until that membership is dissolved." 

3 Science and Health, Preface, p. vii. 



The Religious Tenets 175 

Though minimizing traditional dogma, neither Christian 
Science nor New Thought is without doctrinal basis. We have 
insisted sufficiently on their fundamental dogmas of the One- 
ness and All-ness of God, of the inexistence of evil and the im- 
possibility of matter. What remains to be noticed is their 
attitude towards the positive teachings of Christianity. 

Christian Science has repeatedly been identified more or less 
with various ancient heresies. It has, in turn, been charged 
with being Manichean, Gnostic or Docetic in doctrine, and anti- 
nomian in ethics. The truth is that Christian Science cannot 
be identified with any one heresy, either ancient or modern, 
though undoubtedly it has incorporated elements that were dis- 
tinctive of ancient sects as well as elements distinctive of 
modern thought. To judge only from appearances, nothing 
seems to be farther from the truth than an identification of 
Christian Science, with its insistence on the One-ness of God, 
and Manicheism, with its dualism of the two irreconcilable and 
eternal principles of Good and Evil. And yet, is not Mrs. 
Eddy's anomalous teaching concerning malicious animal mag- 
netism, which is practically omnipotent, the nearest approach 
to Manicheism? 

Again, Gnosticism, with its numberless ceons and its hier- 
archy of spirits, seems to be a long way from anything that 
Christian Science teaches. And yet, Christian Science is akin 
to Gnosticism by making understanding or science its issue in 
opposition to faith. While the Christian Church has always 
exalted the act of faith as the essential act of religion, the 
Gnostics, and with them the Christian Scientists, depreciate 
faith, in order to exalt what they label gnosis, understanding or 
science, but what in truth is nothing but a figment of their 
fertile imagination. So, likewise, is it easy to see some analogy 
between the Gnostic aeons that emanate from God, and Mrs. 
Eddy's conception of the divine ideas, which are thoroughly 
spiritual, and yet so real as to be the only reality we know. 
Finally, a group of Gnostics based themselves on the Bible as 
the word of God, but insisted on the absolute necessity of giving 
it an allegorical interpretation ; thus does Mrs. Eddy advocate 



176 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

a spiritual interpretation which, while it neglects the literal 
meaning, is to her the real interpretation and the Key to the 
Scripture. 1 

Let us pass on to the charge of docetism leveled against 
Mrs. Eddy. The charge can only be true in the sense that Mrs. 
Eddy divides Christ. She made a real distinction between Jesus, 
the man, and Christ, the divine ideal that had taken possession 
of him. "Jesus is the human man, and Christ, the divine Ideal," 
says Mrs. Eddy; "hence the duality of Jesus, the Christ." In 
her Glossary, she declares Jesus to be "the highest human 
corporeal concept of the divine, rebuking and destroying error 
and bringing to light man's immortality" ; and Christ she de- 
fines as "the divine manifestation of God which comes to the 
flesh, to destroy incarnate error." 2 The Christ can, there- 
fore, be as readily in Mrs. Eddy as in the prophet of Nazareth. 

From this it follows that Christian Science is anti- 
Trinitarian. It denies the divinity of Jesus, and of the Holy 
Ghost. The latter is for Mrs. Eddy "divine Science, the devel- 
opment of eternal life, Truth and love." 3 With this teach- 
ing disappear the very foundations of the Christian re- 
ligion. It is all the more surprising that Mrs. Eddy should 
maintain against the Liberal theologians that Jesus was born 
of a virgin. 

"The illumination of Mary's spiritual sense put to silence 
material law and its order of generation, and brought forth 
her child by the revelation of Truth, demonstrating God as 
the Father of men. The Holy Ghost, or divine Spirit, over- 
shadowed the pure sense of the Virgin-Mother with the full 
recognition that being is Spirit. The Christ dwelt forever an 
ideal in the bosom of God, the divine Principle of the man 

1 "All gnostic systems are based on a kind of dualism of God and 
matter. But with the Platonists some regarded matter as unreal and 
without form, while others supposed it to be ruled by an evil principle, 
and hence to be directly opposed and hostile to God. The theogonic and 
cosmogonic process was explained on the principle of an emanation, by 
which from the hidden God a long series of Divine formations or aeons 
had emanated, whose indwelling divine potency diminished in measure as 
they removed from the original divine source." Kurtz: Church History 
(Philadelphia, 1878), Vol. I, p. 96. 

'Science and Health, pp. 473, 583, 589. 

*Ibid. t p. 588. 



The Religious Tenets 177 

Jesus; and woman perceived this spiritual idea, though at 
first faintly developed in infant form. . . . Jesus was the 
offspring of Mary's self-conscious communion with God." x 

This quotation, while it proves that Mrs. Eddy maintained 
the Virgin-Birth, proves at the same time that she did so in a 
manner quite out of keeping with orthodoxy. In this fact she 
believed she saw a confirmation of her theory of the immaterial- 
ity of things. Also did she teach this Virgin-Birth not as a 
unique privilege, but as something which will become the rule 
as soon as men are sufficiently spiritual no longer to believe at 
all in the reality of matter. Mrs. Eddy loved to dwell on 
this idea. It was taught in her college, and expounded in her 
writings and private conversations. To find a basis for the 
act of generation in God, she transferred the ideas of both 
fatherhood and motherhood to Him, and loved to speak of 
Him as "our Father-Mother God." 2 

No system that remains Christian, even in name only, can 
neglect to treat of the fundamental mj^stery of Redemption or 
the Atonement, be it even merely to repudiate it. In this sense 
Mrs. Eddy acknowledges "Jesus' atonement as the evidence of 
divine, efficacious Love, unfolding man's unity with God through 
Christ Jesus, the Way-shower." 3 To keep the time-honored 
word of the Christian dogma, to empty it of its consecrated 
meaning, and to give it a new significance at variance with 
the traditional belief is a favorite method of Liberal and Mod- 
ernistic theologians. Mrs. Eddy is thoroughly modern in this 
respect. By acknowledging the atonement as an evidence of 
Love, and as unfolding man's unity with God through Christ 
Jesus, she implicitly rejects the Christian dogma of Christ's 
vicarious death, for our sins. Mrs. Eddy consecrates a whole 
chapter to atonement and Eucharist. She puts down many a 
beautiful thought on Christ's sufferings, but the general trend 
of her teaching is this, that Christ by suffering and apparently 
dying has become to us an example of how to overcome the 
belief of suffering and how to "demonstrate" over death. "Let 

1 Science and Health, p. 29. 
'Ibid., -p. 16. 
3 Ibid., p. 497. 



178 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

men think they had killed the body ! afterwards He would show 
it to them unchanged. This should demonstrate that the true 
man, in Christian Science, is governed by God, by good, not 
evil, and is therefore not a mortal, but an immortal." * Else- 
where Mrs. Eddy puts this more plainly when she said that 
the crucifixion of Jesus and his resurrection served to elevate 
faith and understanding to perceive eternal Life — the allness 
of Spirit and the nothingness of matter." 2 

A further consequence of this teaching is that all the sacra- 
ments are given up. While the earlier Protestants kept two 
or three, Christian Science and New Thought reject them all 
and take special pains to explain away the deep spiritual signifi- 
cance of Baptism and the Eucharist. 

"Our baptism," writes Mrs. Eddy, "is a purification from 
all error. Our Church is built on the divine Principle, Love. 
We can unite with this Church only as we are newborn of 
Spirit, as we reach the Life which is Truth and the Truth 
which is Life, by bringing forth the fruits of Love — casting 
out error and healing the sick." 3 

In a similar manner the Holy Eucharist is spirited away : 

"Our Eucharist is spiritual communion with the one God. 
Our bread 'which cometh down from Heaven' is Truth. Our 
cup is the cross ; our wine, the inspiration of Love — the 
draught our Master drank and commended to His followers. 
... The material blood of Jesus was no more efficacious to 
cleanse from sin when it was shed upon the accursed tree than 
when it was flowing in his veins, as he went daily about his 
Father's business. His true flesh and blood were His Life; 
and they truly eat his flesh and drink his blood who partake 
of the divine Life." 4 

Thus the issue is clearly drawn between Christ and Christian 
Science, between the plain and obvious meaning of Christ's 

1 Science and Health, p. 42. 

a Ibid., p. 497. 

3 Ibid., p. 35. 

*Ibid. Cf. also Church Manual, Art. XVIII, sect. 1: "The Mother 
Church of Christ, Scientist, shall observe no more communion seasons." 
Sect. 2: "The Communion shall be observed in the branch churches on 
the second Sunday in January and July of each year, and at this service 
the Tenets of The Mother Church are to be read." 






The Religious Tenets 179 

words and the so-called spiritual interpretations of Christian 
Science. It would be useless to attempt a direct refutation of 
these views ; for as long as any one can claim the right to 
put his own meaning into somebody else's words, it is useless 
to argue about the meaning intended by the author. We shall, 
therefore, proceed to illustrate Mrs. Eddy's concept of salva- 
tion. 

"We acknowledge that man is saved through Christ, 
through Truth, Life and Love, as demonstrated by the Galilean 
Prophet in the healing of the sick and the overcoming of sin 
and death." x 

Purposely ambiguous like the rest, these words of Mrs. 
Eddy might be interpreted in a sense not too far apart from 
the teaching of the Church. But in the light of Mrs. Eddy's 
teaching they implicitly deny the most fundamental truths of 
Christianity. For, to begin with, Christ here does not mean 
the man Jesus, but the divine Principle which is variously 
styled Truth, Life or Love or all three combined. Delete the 
word Christ from this proposition and you have lost nothing 
of Mrs. Eddy's meaning; on the contrary, it becomes clearer 
and a good deal more candid. Mrs. Eddy undoubtedly means 
this: "We acknowledge that man is saved through Truth, Life 
and Love." These principles of life, according to the modern 
mind healers, were demonstrated or exemplified by the Galilean 
Prophet, not in His teaching, His life, his prayers, His suffer- 
ings, but in the "healing of the sick, and the overcoming of sin 
and death." Once again Jesus is only the Way-shower to Christ 
or Christian Science, that is, to Truth, Life and Love. 

"Man is saved through Christ." When we speak of salva- 
tion, we generally mean future and eternal salvation. Nothing 
would be farther from the mind of a Christian Scientist: for 
him salvation means primarily and exclusively salvation from 
sin, sickness and death, as he understands these. Salvation 
is merely a getting rid of some erroneous beliefs in the present 
life. The future interests them very little. As there is no future 
hell to be feared, and therefore no future evil from which man 
must be saved, so, in the opinions of Christian Scientists, a 
1 Science and Health, p. 497. 



180 Christian Science and tlie Catholic Faith 

future heaven holds out very little attraction. It adds nothing 
to the happiness of a Christian Scientist; it is merely the 
present life continued in a different sphere. For this reason the 
Christian Scientist focuses all his attention on the present life. 
Says Mrs. Eddy: 

"'Now,' cried the apostle, 'is the acceptable time; behold, 
now, is the day of salvation,' — meaning thereby, not that men 
must now prepare for a future world-salvation or safety, but 
that now is the time in which to experience that salvation 
in spirit and life. Now is the time for so-called material 
pains and material pleasures to pass away ; for both are un- 
real, because impossible in Science. To break this earthly 
spell, mortals must get the true idea and divine Principle of 
all that really exists and governs the universe harmoniously. 
This thought is apprehended slowly : and the interval between 
its attainment is attended with doubts and defeats as well 
as triumphs." 

These are some of the more common religious affirmations 
and negations which Christian Science and New Thought have 
accepted. We should, however, labor under an erroneous be- 
lief, were we to hold that all Christian Scientists and all fol- 
lowers of the New Thought movement are united in a common 
profession of faith. Perhaps nowhere can the fact of the 
multiplicity of error in opposition to the unity of Truth be 
better demonstrated than in, this pretended rediscovery of 
original Christianity. What one affirms, the other denies, and 
yet all claim to be the very mouthpiece of Truth. Mr. Charles 
Fillmore presents us with a sketch of the intellectual confusion 
winch reigns supreme among the followers of the new move- 
ments. He himself glories in this state of absolute individualism 
and mental isolation : 

"This, then, is really the foundation of the New Thought 
movement," says he, "that its adherents shall each and all be 
priest and prophet and stand alone with the inner Wisdom 
as sole guide in matters religious. But not all are living up 
to this free doctrine. There are leaders many, and schools 
separating their followers into limitations of various degrees. 
These are the natural divisions of the inner thought planes 



The Religious Tenets 181 

finding expression without, and are, in a measure, necessary 
in the present race development. 

"There are those in New Thought who are seeking to 
carry into the kingdom of heaven their earthly possessions. 
They are trying to use the newly discovered powers of the 
mind to bring up humanity on the old foundations. They 
proclaim the universality of the one Life and Intelligence, 
and that all necessary resting upon God must be good. . . . 

"What may be termed the 'Mental Science' school holds 
that God is not a being of Love and Wisdom, but a force of 
attraction. They repudiate the Loving Father proclaimed 
by Jesus Christ, and hold that man is the highest form of 
self-consciousness in the universe. . . . 

"There is another class of New Thought people who ac- 
cept Christianity in its true sense, and try to live up to the 
teachings of Jesus Christ. . . . 

"There are a number of schools, passing under the gen- 
eral name of New Thought, that adhere to this Christian 
interpretation, yet even among them there are minor differ- 
ences. Each teacher tinges with his mental bias the philoso- 
phy he promulgates. Not one seems yet to have attained 
that place where the revelation from the Spirit of Truth, 
promised by Jesus to his followers, is wholly transparent. 
For this reason disciples are never safe in accepting the 
teachings of any school as final, or as having the unadulter- 
ated truth." * 

These words show in what helpless confusion the New 
Thought movement already finds itself intellectually. By mak- 
ing her system an autocracy, Mrs. Eddy succeeded in keeping 
it better united, but here also there are many signs of disunion. 
In neither case is the doctrinal basis held to be of any great 
importance; for them all practice is the supreme test of truth. 

1 Fillmore: The Science of Being (Kansas City, 1912), pp. 250-252. 



CHAPTER XII 



ON PRAYER 



The most common view, entertained by the people about 
Christian Scientists, represents them as men, or rather as mostly 
women, who abhor the regular physician, who deny all heal- 
ing power to drugs, who renounce, theoretically only, hygiene, 
and who cure, or hope to cure, all bodily ills by means of prayer. 
Now if this is true, if Christian Science can be credited with 
fostering the spirit of prayer, it deserves in this respect un- 
stinted praise, no matter what objections can be raised against 
it on other grounds. The chapter on prayer now heads all 
others in the textbook, and its very first sentences lend color 
to the popular belief that nothing in Christian Science is more 
important than prayer. 

"Regardless of what another may say or think on this 
subject, I speak from experience. Prayer, watching and 
working, combined with self-immolation, are God's gracious 
means for accomplishing whatever has been done successfully 
for the christianization and health of mankind." * 

This value judgment on the importance of these acts in life 
deserves recognition; for as far at least as the spiritual life 
is concerned, it is wellnigh perfect and would deserve the high- 
est commendation, were it not for the explanations that follow. 
As we read on, we are forcibly reminded of the Pharisee and 
the Publican. The Pharisee thanked God that he was not like 
the rest of men ; but the Publican, "standing afar off, would 
not so much as lift up his eyes towards heaven, but struck 
his breast, saying, 'O God, be merciful to me a sinner.' " And 

1 Science and Health, p. 1. 

182 






On Prayer 183 

Jesus adds: "I say to you, this man went down into his house 
justified rather than the other." * 

According to Mrs. Eddy the Publican was entirely wrong to 
pray the way he did, and the Pharisee, to say the least, was 
much more nearly right. For 

"prayer is not to be used as a confessional to cancel sin. 
This error would impede true religion. Sin is forgiven only, 
as it is destroyed by Christ, (that means) Truth and Life. 
7/ prayer nourished the belief that sin is canceled, and that 
man is made better by merely praying, it is an evil. . . . 
Temptation bids us repeat the offence, and woe comes in re- 
turn for what is done. So it will ever be till we learn that 
there is no discount in the law of justice, and that we must 
pay the 'uttermost farthing.' ... To suppose that God for- 
gives or punishes sin, according as His mercy is sought or 
unsought, is to misunderstand Love, and make prayer the 
safety-valve for wrong-doing. . . . Do you ask Wisdom 
(that is, God) to be merciful and not punish sin? Then, ye 
ask amiss. Without punishment sin would multiply." 2 

Now plainly, Mrs. Eddy little understands the Christian 
teaching concerning sin and forgiveness. To ask God's for- 
giveness for our sins in her view is an evil. "Calling on him," 
she says, "to forgive our work, badly done or left undone, im- 
plies the vain supposition that we have nothing to do but to ask 
pardon, and that afterwards we shall be free to repeat the 
offense." 3 Mrs. Eddy could hardly have made this statement 
in good faith. She ought to have known that forgiveness is not 
a dispensation to commit sin. This may have been dinned into 
her ears as part of a standard vilification of the Confessional, 
but, surely, it was never the Church's teaching. Forgiveness is 
a pardon granted only to those who, in all sincerity, return to 
their Maker and are fully determined to keep His holy law.- 
Nor does it ordinarily mean a full remission of all the punish- 
ment due to sin. While the eternal punishment of hell fire is al- 
ways remitted with the guilt, temporal punishments, flowing 

1 Luke 18:10-14. 

'Science and Health, pp. 20, 6, 10. 

1 Ibid., p. 6. 



184 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

from, or due to, sin — the only kind that Mrs. Eddy can ac- 
knowledge^ — are not as a rule entirely remitted along with the 
guilt. 

What, in Mrs. Eddy's mind, does forgiveness consist in? 
It consists not only in giving up sinning, but also in overcoming 
evil habits that have resulted from former sins, and even in 
conquering concupiscence which is partly natural, and partly a 
consequence of original sin and an inherited disposition. Though 
Mrs. Eddy does not express her mind very clearly, there can be 
little doubt that she labored under the error of the Reformers 
that human nature is totally corrupt, and that concupiscence 
and every evil habit is sinful. Now, sin does not consist in a 
habit, but in an act, a deliberate, willful, lawless act, and it is 
for such sinful acts, that God's forgiveness must be sought, a 
forgiveness which can be obtained only by such as are truly 
penitent and resolved to renounce their evil ways. Correcting 
evil habits is something quite different from obtaining forgive- 
ness; but for both the one and the other prayer must be pro- 
nounced of the highest utility and necessity. "Ask, and it shall 
be given you ; seek, and you shall find ; knock, and it shall be 
opened to you." x 

In the light of this and many similar Scriptural statements, 
weigh the following statements of the "new" revelation: 

"God is Love ; can we ask Him to be more ? God is Intel- 
ligence. Can we inform the Infinite Mind or tell Him any- 
thing He does not already comprehend? Do we hope to 
change perfection? Shall we plead for more at the open 
fount which alwa} T s pours forth more than we receive? . . . 
Asking God to be God is a vain repetition. God is the same 
yesterday, today and forever, and He who is immutably right, 
will do right without being reminded of His province. The 
wisdom of man is not sufficient to warrant him in advising 
God. . . . How empty are our conceptions of Deity! We 
admit theoretically that God is good, omnipotent, omni- 
present, infinite, and, then, we try to give information to this 
infinite Mind, and plead for unmerited pardon and a liberal 
outpouring of benefactions. . . ." 2 

1 Matt. 7:7. 

2 Science and Health, pp. 2-3. 



On Prayer 185 

Thus the founder of a new religion has succeeded in com- 
pressing into a small compass, and making her own, century- 
old objections raised in the first place by rationalists whose 
only object was precisely to raise objections and create diffi- 
culties in the way of belief, little interested themselves, if at 
all, in the solution of them. No other answer is required than 
the clear teaching of the Bible which Mrs. Eddy despite her 
textbook continued to accept "as our sufficient guide to eternal 
Life." 1 It may be proper, none the less, to point out here, 
without transgressing the limits imposed on us, some of Mrs. 
Eddy's unwarranted assumptions. She assumes that we pray 
to inform God of our needs, when, in point of fact, we pray 
because we have been ordered to do so by God Himself, who, 
thus, requires us to prepare ourselves for a more abundant out- 
pouring of divine gifts by cooperating with His eternal designs. 
She assumes that the granting of our petitions is conditioned 
on a change in the Divine Will, when, as a matter of fact, from 
all eternity the granting of certain favors has been made de- 
pendent on prayer. She assumes that because God can give 
all and more than we need, He actually does so without our 
asking for anything, when daily experience proves the con- 
trary. She becomes ludicrous, almost profane, when she as- 
sumes that prayers are for the purpose of reminding God of 
His duty, "of His province." 

How easy it is to retort to Mrs. Eddy's rhetorical questions 
by an equal number of queries, similar in appearance, but more 
solid in contents, addressed now to Mrs. Eddy. 

"God is our Lord and Master. Can we lay down laws 
for Him? God is Intelligence. Can we inform the Infinite 
Mind concerning the best ways of salvation? How can we 
presume that we know so perfectly the ways of Divine Provi- 
dence as to be able to proclaim without hesitation that the 
granting of favors as a result of prayers must mean a change 
in the Divine Will? Is God at the mercy of his creatures, so 
that He is bound to pour out His blessings upon them, even 
when they refuse to accept them ? Can he not bestow greater 
favors on a saint that prays than on a sinner that scoffs? 

1 Science and Health, p. 497. 



186 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

Are not those dispositions that are essential to prayer, and 
the acts, which it necessitates, absolute requirements in the 
designs of the Divine Providence for the improvement and 
salvation of mankind? We admit theoretically that God is 
good, omnipotent, omnipresent, infinite, and then we try to 
bring Him down to the level of our puny intellect and to ap- 
ply to Him the measure of our human prejudices and self- 
conceit." 

This accumulation of questions goes to show how easy the 
game of raising objections in the form of question marks, 
quietly assuming from the start that they all must be answered 
in the sense that is uppermost in the mind of the questioner. 

Mrs. Eddy is not satisfied with claiming that a prayer of 
petition is powerless, she maintains that it is injurious: it does 
not, in her opinion, make man better, it makes him worse; 
for it is a belief, an error, an illusion, which, if it benefits 
momentarily, will in the end do harm. 

"The habit," she says, "of pleading with the Divine Mind, 
as one pleads with a human being, perpetuates the belief in 
God as humaiuy circumscribed — an error which impedes 
spiritual growth. ... A mere request that God will heal 
the sick has no power to gain more of the Divine Presence 
than is always at hand. The beneficial effect of such prayer 
for the sick is on the human mind, making it act more power- 
fully on the body through a blind faith in God. This, how- 
ever, is one belief casting out another, — a belief in the un- 
known casting out a belief in sickness. . . . Prayer to a cor- 
poreal God affects the sick like a drug, having no efficacy of 
its own, but borrowing its power from human faith and be- 
lief. The drug does nothing because it has no intelligence. 
It is mortal belief, not divine Principle or Love which causes 
a drug to be apparently either poisonous or sanative. . . . 
This common form of praying for the recovery of the sick 
finds help in blind belief ; whereas help should come from the 
enlightened understanding." * 

These words are cunningly calculated to undermine the 
experiential proof which all praying people have of the efficacy 
1 Science and Health, p. 12. 



On Prayer 187 

of prayer and of the Divine help it obtains. Not God, but 
nature is responsible for its results ; it is not even God through 
nature, but simply nature based on error, on a kind of hallu- 
cination or self-delusion. Thus, the rejection of the plain evi- 
dence of daily religious experience is demanded of the Christian 
Scientist on no other warrant than that of Mrs. Eddy's un- 
supported word alone. As this, however, cannot outweigh the 
clear teaching of Christ and of His Church, we may dismiss 
the subject without further comment. 

But we have not done as yet with the analysis of Mrs. 
Eddy's destructive theories. If she rejects all prayer of peti- 
tion and propitiation, she particularly execrates audible and 
public prayers. 

"Audible prayer is impressive," she says, "it gives mo- 
mentary solemnity and elevation to thought ; but does it pro- 
duce any lasting benefit? Looking deeply into these things, 
we find that 'a zeal . . . not according to knowledge' gives 
occasion for reaction unfavorable to spiritual growth, sober 
resolve, and wholesome perception of God's requirements. The 
motives for verbal prayer may embrace too much love of ap- 
plause to induce or encourage Christian sentiment. . . . The 
danger from audible prayer is, that it may lead us into temp- 
tation. By it we may become involuntary hypocrites, utter- 
ing desires which are not real, and consoling ourselves in the 
midst of sin, with the recollection that we have prayed over 
it, — or mean to ask forgiveness at some later date. Hypoc- 
risy is fatal to religion. ... A wordy prayer may afford a 
quiet sense of self -justification, though it makes the sinner a 
hypocrite. . . . x 

"In public prayer we often go beyond our convictions, 
beyond the honest standpoint of fervent desire. If we are 
not secretly yearning and openly striving for the accomplish- 
ment of all we ask, our prayers are vam repetitions, such as 
the heathen use. . . . Can the mere public expression of our 
desires increase them ? Do we gain the omnipotent ear sooner 
by words than by thoughts ? Even if prayer is sincere, God 
knows our needs, before we tell Him or our fellow-beings 
about it." 2 

1 Science and Health, p. 7. 
> Ibid., p. 13. 



188 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

In the midst of much that we must reject, we find here some 
sentiments that we must applaud. Hypocrisy is undoubtedly 
fatal to religion ; religion is too much an affair of the exterior, 
for some ; by prayer some of us "may become involuntary hypo- 
crites, uttering desires which are not real and consoling our- 
selves in the midst of sin." If the charge "that verbal prayer 
may embrace too much love of applause" is true, it can apply 
only to the Protestant practice of formulating new prayers 
at every new service, not to the public prayers of the Catholic 
Church. These observations are not without foundation and 
would, indeed, be praiseworthy but for the spirit in which they 
were made. For Mrs. Eddy uses these strictures not as an 
argument to lead men to put their heart and soul into prayer, 
but as a weapon of offense against prayer itself. But as the 
abuse of an}'thing cannot reprobate its proper use, so abuses 
that may creep into public prayers do not vitiate the use of 
public prayer when resorted to for mutual edification and social 
worship. Why, forsooth, should Mrs. Eddy worry about audible 
prayer? If her theories are true, and matter does not exist, or 
exists only in belief, audible prayers do not take place, since 
they evidently presuppose material organs and a material sur- 
rounding. 



Prayer in Christian Science seemingly is neither for the 
asking of forgiveness nor for the obtaining of favors. No 
mention is made of prayer of adoration, and although thanks- 
giving is mentioned, it is practically restricted to a grateful 
behavior. "Are we really grateful for the good already re- 
ceived? Then we shall avail ourselves of the blessings we have, 
and thus be fitted to receive more. Gratitude is much more than 
a verbal expression of thanks. Action expresses more gratitude 
than speech." x What, then, does prayer really mean in Chris- 
tian Science? Is all prayer of petition absolutely excluded? 
The answer lies in Mrs. Eddy's definition of prayer : "Consistent 
prayer is the desire to do right. Prayer means that we desire 

1 Science and Health, p. 3. 



On Prayer 189 

to, and will, walk in the light so far as we receive it, even though 
with bleeding footsteps, and waiting patiently on the Lord, will 
leave our real desires to be rewarded by Him." x Such a prayer 
God will hear. 

Mrs. Eddy chiefly objects, and rightly so, to mere "lip- 
service," but she teaches that the right kind of desires are a 
most efficient prayer ; "Prayer, coupled with a fervent habitual 
desire to know and do the will of God will bring us into all 
truth. Such a desire has little need of audible expression. It 
is best expressed in thought and life." 2 While thus insisting 
strongly on the sincerity of prayer, even to the extent of pro- 
nouncing audible prayer useless, Mrs. Eddy does not neglect to 
point out a fitting object for our prayer : "What we most need 
is the prayer of fervent desire for growth in grace, expressed 
in patience, meekness, love and good deeds." 3 

There may be nothing new in all this, but we are glad to 
find it in Science and Health. What we criticize is not this 
strong insistence on the necessity of sincerely desiring what 
we ask for, but the fact that prayer is completely identified with 
this desire. Does it not appear as if Mrs. Eddy looked for the 
effects of prayer not in a supernatural assistance, but in that 
gradual mental education which the fostering of good desires 
must accomplish? 

This explains why prayer occupies such an insignificant 
place in Christian Science Church services. The order of ex- 
ercises — fourteen in number — that constitute the service, in- 
cludes the singing of hymns, the reading of selections from the 
Bible and the textbook, which is followed by what is called 
silent prayer. After the audible repetition of the Lord's prayer 
with its so-called spiritual interpretation, another hymn is 
sung, and then follow in regular order the alternate reading, 
by the First Reader and the congregation, of an assigned selec- 
tion from Scripture ; the Lesson-Sermon, consisting of the read- 
ing of extracts from the Bible and the so-called correlative 
sections from Science and Health; the collection, and, finally, 

1 Science and Health, p. 9. 
'Ibid., p. 11. 
'Ibid., p. 4. 



190 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

what is called the scientific statement of being, with its cor- 
relative Scripture text taken from the Gospel according to St. 
John, third chapter, verses 1-3. 

The only strictly vocal prayer in this series of exercises 
is the Lord's prayer with its so-called spiritual interpretation. 
Even Mrs. Eddy was not bold enough to reject this prayer; 
but she caricatures it. Though its every statement is plain 
enough for a child to understand, Mrs. Eddy interprets it, and 
such an interpretation! It has varied considerably in the 
course of time, and for comparison two of its versions are here 
reproduced in parallel columns. 

SCIENTIFIC INTERPRETATION OF THE LORD'S PRAYER * 

Edition of 1881 Later Editions 

1. Principal, Eternal and Our Father-Mother God, all 
Harmonious. harmonious. 

2. Nameless and adorable In- Adorable One. 
telligence. 

3. Thou art ever present and Thy Jkingdom is within us ; 
supreme. Thou art ever present. 

4. And when this supremacy Enable us to know — as in 
of Spirit shall appear, the heaven, so on earth — God is 
dream of matter will dis- supreme. 

appear. 

5. Give us the understanding Give us grace for today ; feed 
of Truth and Love. the famished affections. 

6. And loving we shall learn And infinite Love is reflected in 
God, and Truth will de- love. 

stroy all error. 

7. And lead us unto the Life And Love leadeth us not into 
that is Soul, and deliver us temptation, but delivereth us 
from the errors of sense, from sin, disease and death, 
sin, sickness and death. 

For God is Life, Truth, For God is now and forever all 
and Love forever. Life, Truth and Love. 

How Mrs. Eddy must have labored to pervert the plain 
and obvious meaning of these words, so beautiful in their grand 
1 Ci. Science and Health, p. 17; Mark Twain, op. cit., p. 305. 






On Prayer 191 

simplicity ! Four of the petitions have been changed into 
affirmations ; the reference to the Divine Will, in which Mrs. 
Eddy does not believe, and to obedience to it has been dropped. 
The word bread which sounded too material has been replaced 
by a reference to grace and famished affections, and, finally, 
the change that shocks most of all, is the change of "Our 
Father" into "Our Father-Mother God," and of the reference 
to Heaven as His abode into the adjective "all harmonious." 

Christian Science, it is now evident, is far from being es- 
sentially an association of prayer for the improvement of 
the human race. 



CHAPTER XIII 

ETHICS OF THE MODERN MIND-MOVEMENTS 



The pragmatism of our days professes to put all things 
through the crucible of experience. It transfers to all fields 
of human life and endeavor the methods of research and ex- 
perimentation which have proved so valuable in the laboratory. 
It has invaded the field of ethics and gives as the supreme 
norm of good and evil the rule that whatever works out well 
in practice, is true and good. Mrs. Eddy has appealed to this 
principle as the test of the truth of what she says. She points 
to the record of Christian Science at the sickbed, and boldly 
demands the application, in her case, of the Master's word: 
"By their fruits you shall know them." The opponents of 
Christian Science, on the other hand, accept the challenge, but 
apply the test not exclusively to the sickchamber, but to all the 
intellectual and moral aspects of this new religion. 

The pragmatism of the modern mind-healing places the em- 
phasis on the wrong values of life. They assign to bodily 
health absolutely the highest place. They do not deny, they 
do even insist on, the necessity of a moral life, but their final 
aim and object is bodily health and bodily comfort, with the 
practice of certain virtues thrown in, as a necessary means 
towards this end. A palpable paradox stares us in the face; 
these systems deny the reality of disease, and yet, make the 
healing of disease their first and main concern. On almost 
every page of Science and Health reappears the ghost of ill- 
health to exorcize which ever remains the chief purpose of 
Christian Science. 

Another feature of these cults, to which a Christian will 
object, is the fact that they throw together in a common 

192 



Ethics of the Modern Mind-Movements 198 

class evils which Christianity has constantly kept apart. Sick- 
ness and death belong together; but when sin is grouped with 
both, as though they all belonged to the same order, chaos 
is introduced into Christian ethics. Sin springs from a will 
that is free and issues into a state that is called guilt and, thus, 
occupies an absolutely unique position in human life. Physical 
ills, on the contrary, belong directly to the material, and only 
indirectly to the spiritual world. The consequence is that the 
treatment of them, if the term be allowed, cannot be the same 
for both. 

Has not Christ been described as "the man of sorrows," 
and acquainted with infirmity, wounded for our iniquity, and 
bruised for our sins? Is it not stated in so many words that 
"the Lord was pleased to bruise him in infirmity"? x If this 
is so, sickness and suffering cannot be treated as absolutely evil. 
Mrs. Eddy herself, when there is question of Christian Science 
interests, at times recognizes this. 

"Who that has felt the loss of human peace has not 
gained stronger desires for spiritual joy? The aspiration 
after heavenly good comes even before we discover what be- 
longs to Wisdom and Love. The loss of earthly hopes and 
pleasures brightens the ascending path of many a heart. 
The pains of sense quickly inform us that its pleasures are 
mortal, and that joy is spiritual. . . . The pains of sense 
are salutary, if they wrench away false pleasureable beliefs, 
and transplant the affections from sense to Soul, where the 
creations of God are good, 'rejoicing the heart.' Such is the 
sword of Science, whereby Truth decapitates error, and mor- 
tality gives place to man's higher individuality and des- 
tiny." 2 

The inconsistency of these declarations with Mrs. Eddy's 
fundamental tenet, that physical suffering is unreal and es- 
sentially evil, need not be pointed out. Christian Science is 
entirely reared on the supposition that sickness is an unmiti- 
gated evil, and that it is the first duty of every Christian Scien- 
tist to root it up. How different the Christian view, which 

^saias 53:3, 10. 

2 Science and Health, p. 265, 



194 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

represents many of the saints as winning their eternal crown 
through a long martyrdom of pains and penances ! The Chris- 
tion faith looks upon physical evil as a means of grace, of ex- 
piation and merit, and, consequently, often as a blessing in dis- 
guise, while it condemns sin as the only unqualifiedly real evil. 
If, then, sickness lingers in spite of doctor, drug and prayer, the 
patient's mental make-up is not necessarily at fault, as the 
modern mind-healer must consistently assert, for sickness and 
sorrow undoubtedly have a mission to fulfill in the designs of 
divine Providence for the spiritualization of man's sensual na- 
ture and for the salvation of his soul. 



That Christian Science is lowering the standard of morality 
by its peculiar teaching concerning sin is beyond dispute. 
Shall we, with many authors, go so far as to accuse it of 
antinomian tendencies? One writer says: 

"Christian Science teaches that there is no such thing as 
sin. Sin has no reality. Over and over and over again its 
non-existence is affirmed, its actuality denied. Well, if that 
be true, Christian Science teaches that you can commit adul- 
tery, robbery, murder or any other of the numerous crimes, 
we have always thought to be sinful and not be guilty of sin 
at all ! Whatever these iniquities and others equally heinous 
be, they are not sin. Heaven pity us if our intelligence en- 
dorse such ethics as truth." x 

Another one writes : 

"On this theory sin is only a bad dream and all we need 
do to get rid of it is to stab ourselves broad awake. This 
doctrine of the nothingness of matter and of sin is of ancient 
Gnostic lineage and it has lost none of its antinomian ten- 
dencies. It is allied to the pantheistic doctrine of illusion 
that saturates the Orient and is so productive of immorality. 
This denial of the very possibility of sin logically sweeps away 
all barriers against the flesh and opens the gate for sensuality 

1 Biederwolf : The Unvarnished Facts about Christian Science, p. 29. 



Ethics of the Modern Mind-Movements 195 

to flood the soul. If Christian Scientists do not give way 
to this tendency, it is because they are better than their 
doctrine." x 

Quotations might be multiplied, to prove these contentions ; 
yet, owing to Mrs. Eddy's peculiar terminology, such quota- 
tions would be misquotations. In all fairness we must admit, 
that, in theory, Mrs. Eddy does not directly minimize the great 
evil of sin. If she calls it an unreality, a belief, an illusion, she 
does not mean that sinful acts are not really sinful, but that 
they have no lasting substance ; that they do not belong to the 
real and eternal order of God's Creation, but are defects in 
the order of being; they have no existence in the eternal 
Mind, but form part of the "mortal mind," which, in the 
nature of things, must disappear sooner or later with all its 
contents. For Mrs. Eddy, both sickness and sin are unreal 
in the peculiar sense which Mrs. Eddy gives to this word, but 
they are superlatively real in human experience. In this sense 
Mrs. Eddy says: 

"If mortals would keep proper ward over mortal mind, 
the brood of evils, which infest it, could be cleared out. We 
must begin with this so-called mind, and empty it of sin and 
sickness, or sin and sickness will never cease. The present 
codes of human systems disappoint the weary searcher after 
a divine theology, adequate to the right education of human 
thought. Sin is thought before it is acted. You must con- 
trol it in the first instance, or it will control you in the 
second." 2 

Mrs. Eddy even declares that the cure of sin is harder than 
the cure of disease: 

"It is easier to cure the most malignant disease than it 
is to cure sin. The author has raised up the dying, partly 
because they were willing to be restored; while she has 
struggled long, and perhaps in vain, to lift a student out of 
a chronic sin. Under all modes of pathological treatment, 
the sick recover more rapidly from disease than the sinner 

^nowden: The Truth about Christian Science (Philadelphia, 1920), p. 29. 
2 Science and Health, p. 234. 



196 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

from his sin. . . . The fear of disease and the love of sin 
are the springs of man's enslavement." x 

How sin succeeds by degrees in enslaving the whole man, and 
then rushes him on to his punishment is at times graphically 
described by the founder of Christian Science. 

"The belief of sin," she writes, "which has grown terrible 
in strength and influence, is an unconscious error in the be- 
ginning,— an embryonic thought without motive; but after- 
wards it governs the so-called man. Passion, appetite, dis- 
honesty, envy, hatred, and revenge ripen into action, only to 
pass on from shame and woe to their final punishment." 2 

Here it may also be recalled that Mrs. Eddy insists on the 
moral regeneration of a patient as a prerequisite for a final 
cure of his physical illness. The reason given by her is that 
disease often grows out of sin. "The soil of disease," she says, 
"is sinful mortal mind, and you have an abundant or scanty 
crop, according to the seedlings in that mind, unless they are 
uprooted and cast out." 3 

If there is danger of antinomianism in Christian Science, 
the danger lies not, therefore, in Mrs. Eddy's avowed senti- 
ments regarding sin, but in her disregard of the sanctions that 
God has attached to the violation of the Divine Law. The fear 
of the Lord has been entirely eliminated. "The fear of the 
Lord is the beginning of Wisdom," says Holy Writ; for the 
modern healers' fear is more nearly the beginning of all evil, 
for from fear spring evils innumerable. As all fears must be 
banished, hell, logically enough, must be ruled out of existence, 
no matter what the Bible teaches. How little, after all, does 
Scripture count in the lives and thoughts of many who proclaim 
it as their sufficient and only guide to salvation! Mrs. Eddy 
does not so much as take the trouble of disproving the existence 
of hell; she everywhere takes its non-existence for granted. 

1 Sctence and Health, p. 373. The sin of which Mrs. Eddy here speaks is 
Richard Kennedy's defection from her. Whenever Mrs. Eddy used par- 
ticularly strong language, there was generally a personal consideration in 
the matter. 

'Ibid.,?. 188. 

'Ibid., p. 188. 



Ethics of the Modern Mind-Movements 197 

The word itself receives from her hands a singular connotation ; 
hell means "mortal belief, error, lust, remorse, hatred, revenge, 
sin, sickness, death, suffering and self-destruction, self-imposed 
agony, effects of sin, and, finally, that which worketh abomina- 
tion or maketh a lie." x Now to deny the existence of hell is 
to remove one of the safeguards of virtue. It is a matter of 
common experience that passions are not overcome by the mere 
knowledge that they are evil, and, despite the high-sounding 
praises lavished on a morality with virtue as its own reward, 
the Bible truth still remains true today, that "the fear of the 
Lord is the beginning of Wisdom." 

"The belief of sin is punished as long as it lasts," says Mrs. 
Eddy. 2 This does not mean, as it ordinarily should, that 
not sin, but only the belief in sin is punished ; that not sin, but 
the belief in sin is evil ; or that if one overcomes the belief that 
such or such an action is sinful, no punishment will ensue. 
It means that sin which is a "belief" (in Mrs. Eddy's vocabu- 
lary) is punished, but punished only as long as that belief 
lasts. Nor does tins mean that the punishment ceases, as soon 
as the sinful act is accomplished; for Mrs. Eddy, sin is a state 
or lasting disposition rather than an act. Hence it follows 
that the punishment is commensurate with this lasting disposi- 
tion and will not cease until this disposition has been done away, 
with. 

This interpretation of Mrs. Eddy's mind removes still 
further the danger of antinomianism. The immoral teaching 
often ascribed to Mrs. Eddy does not flow from her principles ; 
the imputation of such teaching is entirely due to the erroneous 
interpretation given to her words by critics. Unfortunately 
her words lend themselves but too easily to such an interpreta- 
tion and it is not impossible that the day may come when her 
words, rather than her meaning, will be accepted by some of 
her followers. Christian Science is still young, its members 
are still afire with the zeal of neophytes, still enthusiastically 
devoted to the mission which they believe it possesses. What 
is best in it is brought to the fore. Will it be so in fifty or a 

1 Science and Health, p. 497. 

2 Of. ibid., p. 35 ff. 



198 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

hundred years from now? Will not the second or third genera- 
tion of Scientists draw from Mrs. Eddy's premises conclusions 
vastly different from those of their fathers? 

As a matter of history, Mrs. Eddy's own sense of sin was 
none of the strongest. Hers was not a delicate conscience. 
Her most violent outbursts against sin were always occasioned 
by some fancied wrong on the part of her students towards 
their teacher and Leader. 

The attempt to improve on her teaching, or even merely to 
explain it, even with the best of intentions, was one of the 
worst crimes that could be committed; to become disloyal to 
the Founder or the Church, — an offense of which Mrs. Eddy 
was the sole judge — was "immorality." No scruples stopped 
Mrs. Eddy on her chosen path. After condemning, in the 
most unmeasured terms, mental malpractice, she unblushingly 
resorted to it herself, and organized others to resort to it, by 
hurling back, mentally, on her imaginary enemies all those evils 
which, as she thought, they were fastening on her. 1 In how far 
such sentiments resulted from her religious beliefs, and in how 
far they were the manifestations of a naturally intolerant and 
vindictive spirit, may be an open question. One thing is cer- 
tain: Christian Science did nothing to render such excesses im- 
possible. "By their fruits you shall know them." 



Mrs. Eddy's teaching concerning marriage has been much 
under fire. It sounds strange to be told that a woman after 
marrying three times and personally choosing her third hus- 
band, should disparage the institution of matrimony. She went 
so far as to call it "legalized lust" and spoke of it as of an 
evil, the toleration of which only the present backward state 
of human progress could justify. How flippant she could be 
on this subject is seen from her answer to the question: "What 

'Mr. Peabody ends his Masquerade with an account of the suicide of a 
young lady, which he ascribes directly to the demand made on her "to treat 
Mrs. Eddy's own son and his lawyer in hostile fashion— by sending arsenical 
poison into their veins (mentally, of course), or otherwise putting them to 
death." The Religio-Medical Masquerade, pp. 192-194. 



Ethics of the Modem Mind-Movements 199 

do you think of marriage?" She replied in Miscellaneous Writ- 
ings "that it is often convenient, sometimes pleasant, and occa- 
sionally a love affair." "Marriage," she continued, "is sus- 
ceptible of many definitions. It sometimes presents the most 
wretched condition of human existence. To be normal, it must 
be a union of the affections that tends to lift mortals higher." 1 
In these words we discover an echo from Mrs. Eddy's own mar- 
riage ventures. But she was not always flippant when treating 
of this subject. In the chapter devoted to it in Science and 
Health are voiced many noble sentiments. She tells the mar- 
ried people that, "infidelity to the marriage covenant is the 
social scourge of all races," that "after marriage it is too late 
to grumble over incompatibility of disposition," that "the prop- 
agation of the human species is a greater responsibility, a more 
solemn charge than the culture of your garden, or the raising 
of stock to increase your flocks and herds." 

Unfortunately these platitudes seem more like an introduc- 
tion to the peculiarities of her teaching than an exhortation 
to fidelity. Why should Mrs. Eddy drag in marriage at all, 
when this subject seems so foreign to her purpose? The fact 
is that this theme possessed for her a strange fascination, as 
it offered her a splendid opportunity to draw out some of the 
consequences flowing from her theories. It also afforded her 
an occasion to bring forward, among others, her views on the 
rights of women, on the education of children, on the granting 
of divorce, and on heredity. But what has attracted the great- 
est attention is her statement that the time will come, — not in 
the hereafter, but in the present life, — when marriage will give 
way to a better state, as a direct result of the teaching of 
Christian Science. As soon as the world is prepared for this, 
men shall neither marry nor be given in marriage. 

"The time cometh," she says, "of which Jesus spake, 
when He declared that in the resurrection there should be 
no more marrying nor giving in marriage, but man should be 
as the angels. Then shall Soul rejoice in its own, wherein pas- 
sion has no part. Then white-robed purity will unite in one 

1 Miscellaneous Writings, p. 52. 



200 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

person masculine wisdom and feminine love, spiritual under- 
standing and perpetual peace." x 

Still more enigmatic are the words which follow: 

"The scientific fact that man and the universe are 
evolved from Spirit — God — and so are spiritual and good, is 
as fixed in divine Science, as is the proof that mortals gain 
the sense of health and heaven only as they lose the sense of 
sin, disease and matter. Mortals can never understand God's 
creation while believing that man is a creator. His children 
already created will be cognized only as man seeks and finds 
the truth of his own being. Thus it is that the real, ideal man 
appears in proportion as mortals, or the false and material, 
disappear. To 'no longer marry or be given in marriage' 
neither closes mans continuity, nor his sense of increasing 
number m God's infinite -plan. Spiritually to understand 
there is but one creator, — God, — unfolds his creation, con- 
firms the Scriptures, brings the sweet assurance of no part- 
ing, no pain, and man perfect and eternal." 2 

Marriage and material generation smacked too much of 
that non-entity, matter, not to fall under the ban. By speaking 
on it as "one having authority" and by timely appeals to the 
Virgin-Birth of Christ, she impressed her first followers with a 
sense of awe and religious reverence. But even Mrs. Eddy 
hardly expected that her words would be taken too literally by 
her students. 

"Until it is learned that God is the father of all, let mar- 
riage continue, and let mortals permit no such disregard of 
law as may lead to a worse state of society than now exists. 
Honesty and virtue ensure the stability of the marriage cove- 
nant. Spirit will ultimately claim its own, all that really is ; 
and the voices of physical sense be forever hushed." 3 

Little did Mrs. Eddy suspect that even in her own lifetime 
a student might lay a claim to having exemplified this bold 
teaching of the new "Science" concerning spiritual generation. 

1 Science and Health, p. 64. 
'Ibid., p. 68. 
*Ibid., p. 64. 






Ethics of the Modern Mind-Movements 201 

In June, 1890, Mrs. Woodbury, who had been associated with 
Mrs. Eddy since 1879, and had been one of her foremost healers 
and teachers, claimed that her baby boy was the result of an 
immaculate conception and, consequently, a demonstration of 
Mrs. Eddy's theory of mental generation. Mrs. Woodbury 
named the child "The Prince of Peace" and baptized him at 
Ocean Point, Maine, in a pool which she called Bethsaida. 

"Mrs. Woodbury would not permit the child who was 
called Prince for short, to address her husband as 'father,' 
but insisted that he address Mr. Woodbury as 'Frank' and 
herself as 'Birdie!' The fact that he was a fine, healthy 
baby, and was never ill, seemed to Mrs. Woodbury's disciples 
conclusive evidence that he was the Divine Principle of Chris- 
tian Science made manifest in the flesh. It was their pleasure 
to bring gifts to 'Prince,' to discover in his behavior indica- 
tions of his spiritual nature; and they professed to believe 
that when he grew to manhood, he would enter upon his 
Divine ministry." x 

This romantic tale, as so many other ventures in which 
Mrs. Eddy was concerned, ended in the law courts and in a 
suit for libel on the part of Mrs. Woodbury. In an article 
published in the Arena, May 1899, Mrs. Woodbury vindicated 
her honor against Mrs. Eddy's insinuations and at the same 
time exposed Mrs. Eddy's teaching in the following strong 
language : 

"The substance of certain instructions given by Mrs. 
Eddy in private is as follows : 'If Jesus was divinely con- 
ceived by the Holy Ghost or Spirit, without a human father, 
Mary not having known her husband, — then women may be- 
come mothers by a supreme effort of their own minds, or 
through the influence upon them of an Unholy Ghost, a ma- 
lign spirit. Women of unquestioned integrity who have been 
Mrs. Eddy's students testify that she has so taught, and 
that by this teaching families have been broken up; that thus 
maidens have been terrified out of their wits, and stimulated 
into a frenzy. . . . Whatever her denials may be, such was 
Mrs. Eddy's teaching while in her college ; to which she added 
1 Milmine; op. cit., p. 430 ff. 



202 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

the oracular declaration that it lay within her power to dis- 
solve such motherhood by a wave of her celestial rod.' " x 

Here we may leave this subject appealing once more to Mrs. 
Eddy's favorite motto : "By their fruits you shall know them." 



If it is true that Mrs. Eddy did not altogether deny the 
reality of sin, but rather looked upon sin as an evil worse even 
than sickness, it does not follow that her standard of morality 
was a very exalted one. Her moral code was vague and indefi- 
nite and could, at best, be an unsafe guide for regulating human 
life. But it may be rejoined that for the modern mind-healers 
the Bible is an official and an inspired book ; that, in conse- 
quence, they cannot be accused of lacking a safe and sound 
rule of life. To this we reply that it is, unfortunately, a matter 
of common and daily observation that personal choice and in- 
dividual presumptions make of the Bible a mine where each one 
can find what he desires, and that it has often been made the 
excuse for the greatest excesses. 

Professor William James speaks of these movements as 
religions of healthy-mindedness. What, we may ask, is a 
healthy mind? One in which there dwell no false, embarrassing 
or idle concepts ; one in which truth resides and which is exempt 
from worry and empty fears ; one which, finding all its desires 
satisfied, can rest in perfect contentment : all these are essential 
characters of a healthy mind that is not only subjectively right, 
but also in possession of objective truth. 

Such qualities are not found in the modern mental-healing 
cults. These, it is true, do not admit doubt regarding their 
intellectual equipment. Satisfied with the general impression 
that they are right, the modern mind-healers will never question 
the foundations of their faith ; for failures they will not blame 
their system, but the unskillful management of those who fail ; 
in a word, their faith could not be stronger, had they really a 
direct divine guaranty for it. This supreme mental assurance, 

1 Quoted in Milmine: op. cit., p. 438. 






Ethics of the Modem Mind-Movements 203 

as far as physical effects are concerned, is as good as would be 
a full possession of objective truth. 

If, then, physical well-being were the only consideration, 
the followers of these new systems might rest securely enough 
on their beliefs. But such a subjective norm needs to be based 
on objective truth, and in this respect, we deny that the new 
mind comes up to the definition of a healthy mind, or that it 
is better than the old and tried mind, imbued with the doctrines 
of faith. Having as their ultimate aim, not truth, but satis- 
faction ; not doctrine, but life ; not revelation, but repose, the 
modern mind-healers have embraced a sort of refined epicurean-? 
ism, not built, it is true, on the inevitableness of fate, but on 
the All-goodness of God. In ethics the modern mind movements 
are utilitarian ; they seek bodily comfort to the almost complete 
exclusion of other considerations. If they decry sin and vice, 
it is because sin and vice bear sorry fruits even for this life; 
if they recommend a doctrine or a practice, it is because these 
are fruitful in good results for the comfort of earthly life. 

When dealing with the great problem of the goodness of 
God, Christian Scientists not only shut their eyes to disagree- 
able facts, but forget that the goodness of God is necessarily 
different from the goodness of men; that its first attribute is 
holiness, and its principal object moral perfection; that all 
other things, both material and spiritual, are subordinate to 
these; and, consequently, that virtue must be cultivated not 
merely with a view to bodily or mental comfort, but out of love 
for God. When these new religions aim principally at banish- 
ing worry of every kind from man's life, trusting thereby to 
secure excellent health, their aim being a low one, no high 
spirituality can result; for the end in view determines the 
degree of perfection of any act, disposition or doctrinal system. 
A pure intention makes all the difference in the world in matters 
ethical. Psychotherapy may recommend, as favorable to health 
and happiness, an array of noble virtues which the Christian 
religion may command as a service to God; in this case the 
mental healer and the Christian, while pursuing the same imme- 
diate end, yet embrace different modes of life, differentiated by 
their ulterior purpose or intention. In one case, the motive is 



204 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

selfish enjoyment, in the other, the love of God above all things. 
When St. Paul declares that "the fruit of the Spirit is joy, 
peace, patience, benignity, goodness, longanimity, mildness, 
faith, modesty, continency, chastity," x he mentions these as 
results of the spiritual life, while the one and only aim of the 
Christian should be to live in the Spirit. If he constantly aims 
at such a spiritual life, the results, the fruits of godliness, will 
take care of themselves. 

Compare with these words of the inspired author the senti- 
ments of one of the best known New Thought writers of the 
present day : 

"Thought-causes are so complex," writes Charles Fill- 
more, "that it is impossible to point out in all cases the spe- 
cific thought that causes a certain disease; but twelve funda- 
mental mind activities lie at the base of all existence, and 
when any one of these is sounded all the others give atten- 
tion. . . . Nearly all sick people lack vital force, hence the 
Life treatment is good for all. Hate, anger, jealousy, malice, 
etc., are almost universal in human consciousness, and a treat- 
ment for Love will prove a healing balm. Anxiety, worry, 
and fear of poverty burden most people, and the Pros- 
perity treatment will be effective. Do not be afraid to use 
the statements in healing, as a whole or in part ; they will al- 
ways help and never hurt any one. Remember the object of 
all treatments is to raise the mind to the Christ Conscious- 
ness, through which all true healing is accomplished." 2 

The keynote of this treatment consists in putting the ban 
on worry and on anything that might burden the human mind. 
Yet the absence of worry in our present condition and under 
all circumstances is not a virtue. To make this a direct aim 
in life is to encourage a happy-go-lucky kind of disposition 
which eventually will result in apathy, lack of interest and 
ambition, a narrowing of the mental horizon and utter selfish- 
ness. If these results are not so apparent in our own days, 
it may be that the newness of these views has so far prevented 

1 Gal. 5:22. 

'Fillmore, Christian Healing, p. 258. 



Ethics of the Modern Mind-Movements 205 

them from running into seed; but, from present results, it 
is impossible to forecast what the future will reveal. 

Moreover, the rejection of all anxiety and worry means a 
stunting and stifling of conscience. Conscience is a monitor 
which keeps the offender on the alert until he amends. In the 
modern mind-healing systems sickness must perform this office, 
while conscience must be looked upon askance as a breeder of 
disease. A mental treatment undoubtedly can cure at least 
for a time most men of this troublesome guide ; there is nothing 
like a systematic course of reasoning to make man as nearly 
as possible conscienceless. A New Thought treatment might 
thus prove to be of invaluable assistance to professional law- 
breakers ; or let us rather say, as a matter of fact, these do 
by similar processes of reasoning set themselves above the fear 
and worry of detection and punishment. Surely, not a very 
good recommendation for this sort of medicine ! 

We may call attention also to another aspect of these treat- 
ments, their entire indifference as to objective truth. By 
affirming what is positively false, and by denying what is un- 
doubtedly a fact, simply because good physical results are ex- 
pected, they try to build up human life on a lie. It is here, 
if anywhere, that we find the principle, "the end justifies the 
means" applied with an utter disregard to truth. It goes with- 
out saying that such a conduct is absolutely at variance with 
sound morality. 

One favorite treatment, resorted to by all modern mind- 
healers, is that of love (oftenest spelled with a capital L). 
The praises of this treatment are sounded everywhere. The 
love of God for men is insisted on and extolled in a hundred 
different tunes. "The universe is created and governed by 
Love." "We must get into Love's ways ; we will then come into 
harmony with the universal law." "Punishment is not a word 
known in the realm of Love." "One who condemns another for 
any reason whatever, has not an understanding of the spiritual 
law of Love. The one who condemns or criticizes another lets 
bitterness into his own mind." 

"To love your enemies is not for sentiment, but for a 
practical double purpose of cleansing your mind of the cor- 



206 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

roding hate, and also of making of your enemies friends, so 
that their thoughts will go out in peace to bless you, and at 
the same time to cause peaceful conditions to obtain within 
themselves. The most foolish thing one can do is to hate 
and get angry. It is a violation of the law under which we 
are intended to live." * 

Far be it from us to minimize the importance of love in the 
moral and spiritual order. Love, the love of God, and the love 
of man, is the great commandment. Love underlies the whole 
work of Creation: God's works are works of love, even when 
He seems to act the angry God and when He strikes in pun- 
ishment. Yet to define minutely what the love of God must, 
and must not do, is to assume too complete a knowledge both of 
the nature of God and of His relations to man. Much wiser is 
it to take the facts as they are, and then to try in the light 
of these facts to understand a little of the nature of the Divine 
Love. 

So likewise not every human love can be canonized as good. 
In our present order love implies hate: love of what is good 
implies hatred of what is evil ; love for a sinner implies hatred 
for sin. Consequently, the sentiments of hatred are not entirely 
excluded from the Christian Law. Besides, true love for those 
who deserve or require our love is productive of anxiety and 
worry, dispositions which the modern mind-healers make it a 
point to disown. Thus we are led into an inextricable medley 
of confusion out of which even our would-be leaders are unable 
to point the way. 

Against this analysis of the so-called spiritual element in 
New Thought it is protested that the lives of its adherents 
show the groundlessness of all these inferences. Their lives 
are honorable ; their interests are varied ; their activity is even 
increased ; in every possible way they are estimable and useful 
citizens. 

To this I reply that practically all the followers of the 
New Thought movement have been trained under a different 
regime. The past has followed them into the present and has 

1 Cf. Mills, Anna W.: Practical Metaphysics for Healing and Self -Culture 
(Chicago, 1896), pp. 284-285, 



Ethics of the Modern Mind-Movements 207 

guarded them against excesses which would naturally follow a 
whole-souled acceptance of this new doctrine. They have 
adopted it only to the extent that it appealed to them, and, 
consequently, they have not been thoroughly molded by it. 
But even where New Thought influences have been active since 
early youth, the environment invariably has acted as a cor- 
rective in a good many ways. The appeal to such facts is 
therefore out of place. It is universally admitted that the in- 
fluence of Islam has been bad; yet it took centuries for this 
influence to work out its logical conclusions. So it is impossible 
to gauge the trend, and measure the final results, of any public 
cause in the lives of its first adherents. Time alone can tell, 
and even then it may happen that thoughtful men will forestall 
the evil which logically would flow from its teaching. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE NEW MOVEMENT VERSUS MIRACLES 



Christian Science and New Thought throughout assume 
that historical miracles must be explained — or rather explained 
away — in the light of modern mental sciences. The super- 
natural is banished out of existence. Christ, let us rather say 
Jesus (for they commonly distinguish between the two), for 
them was a faith-healer, the most successful faith-healer that 
ever lived. His miracles cannot be accepted as supernatural 
facts, but they are wonderful as feats of a strong and saintly 
personality. He may be exceptionally successful, but it is be- 
cause he is an exceptional man: any one favored to the same 
extent by Mother Nature would do as well. 1 

These views are a legacy which the modern mind-movement 
owes to its pioneer teacher, P. P. Quimby. Quimby, in fact, 

1 The literature on miracles and their relation to psychotherapy is 
enormous. All opponents of the reality of miracles in the true sense of 
the word now adopt the same views: Christ's miracles must be brought 
in line with modern mind cures. On this subject from the modern point 
of view confer: Evans: Primitive Mind-Cure (Boston, 1884), chaps. 20-23; 
The Divine Laic of Cure (Boston, 1881), Part I, chaps. 16-20; Part II, 
chap. 7; H. W. Dresser: History of the New-Thought Movement (New 
York, 1919), passim; Worcester-McComb-Coriat: Religion and Medicine 
(New York, 1908) ; Worcester-McComb: The Christian Religion as a Heal- 
ing Power (New York, 1909). Following the same general trend we have 
also Rev. J. M. Thompson: Miracles in the New Testament (2d ed., London, 
1911) ; Duff and Allen: Psychic Research and Gospel Miracles (New York, 
1902). 

Among the many defenders of the supernatural character of Christ's 
miracles we must mention on the Protestant side Newman's Essays on 
Miracles; archbishop R. C. Trench: Notes on the Miracles of Our Lord (new 
ed., New York, 1880) ; J. B. Mozley: Eight Lectures on Miracles, preached 
before the University of Oxford (new ed., London, 1895) ; J. J. Lias: 
Are Miracles Credible? (2d revised ed., London, 1890). 

On the Catholic side, besides all manuals on Apologetics, we may espe- 
cially mention Joseph de Tonquedec: Introduction a V Etude du Merveilleux 
et du Miracle (Paris, 1916) and the small, but valuable treatise by the 
Rev. G. H. Joyce, S.J., entitled The Question of Miracles (London, 1914). 

208 



The New Movement Versus Miracles 209 

claimed to have "rediscovered the method of healing by which 
Jesus wrought, not his miracles, but his highly intelligible 
works of healing." Says Mr. H. W. Dresser: 

"His work with the sick seemed to him [Quimby] a spir- 
itual science, a science of life and happiness, as he called it. 
This science he found implicit in the teachings of Christ. His 
manuscripts are for the most part devoted to a study of 
his experiences with the sick in such a way as to show that 
the truths they implied were the truths which Jesus came to 
reveal." 

And again : 

"His practice with the sick was in some measure at least 
a rediscovery of the original therapeutic gospel. Its appli- 
cation to healing is a part only of the science which came to 
give men fulness of life, but healing had been the neglected 
part of the gospel. It was necessary that some one should 
arise to specialize upon this. Such in brief was the work 
given Mr. Quimby to do. This was the work he accomplished 
with such impressive success." * 

This appeal to gospel precedent is one of the most valuable 
assets of the modern mind-healer in spreading his theories. He 
can tell his followers : 

"Return to the Bible to see if it be true that it contains 
an inner or spiritual meaning; to see if, indeed, there be a 
neglected science of the Christ in the New Testament, imply- 
ing principles of universal application through spiritual 
healing. If so, this inner or spiritual truth may be the great 
truth of the new age ; it may imply the second coming of the 
Lord in deepest reality." 2 

Mr. Evans found in Christ Jesus the highest exemplifica- 
tion of the idea that God dwells in us as the source of life and 
health. 

"The idea of the indwelling of God in man as the source 
of life and health, which was so deeply rooted in the con- 

1 Cf. H. W. Dresser: History of the New-Thought Movement (New York s 
1919), pp. 42-48, 70. 
'Ibid., p. 69. 



210 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

sciousness of the pious Jews, was carried over into Christian- 
ity, and received there a more philosophical expression. The 
whole life of Jesus the Christ was the highest exemplification 
of the power of this idea ever witnessed in the history of the 
race, and a demonstration of its theoretical and practical 
truth. He cured diseases of mind and body by bringing men 
into conscious contact with the one and only Life. Thus we 
see that the higher forms of the religious life and the state of 
mind and body which we designate by the name of healthy, 
are closely associated." * 

Again he writes: 

"That Jesus, after the age of thirty years, exhibited a 
marvelous power of healing the sick without medicine, and 
which so far surpassed the power of his contemporaries as to 
be deemed miraculous, is a well-established fact and as well 
certified as the principal facts in the life of Alexander or 
Caesar. ... It has been supposed by some that Jesus spent 
his early life among the Essenes who were called in Egypt 
therapeutce, or healers. This may or may not be true. We 
have no historic evidence for it, and it is, in itself, a matter 
of little importance. But whatever means he used, the power 
of the Word and the Spirit was always predominant. He 
demanded as an indispensable condition a trustful submission, 
or an act of faith. . . . The means which Jesus used may 
have stood in some relation to magnetic or psychological phe- 
nomena. But the marvelous power of Jesus appears far more 
like an intelligent mastery of Nature by the soul. The mind 
of man, originally endowed with dominion over the earth, re- 
covered its old rights by the holy innocence of Jesus, conquer- 
ing the unnatural power of disease and death. . . . The cures 
wrought by Jesus the Christ are as much in harmony with 
nature, when properly understood, as the operation of the 
electric telegraph and telephone, or the taking of photo- 
graphs. The law by which they were effected is not an incom- 
municable divine secret and impenetrable mystery, but will 
some day be as well understood as any of the processes of 
nature, and better than the action of medicines in the cure of 
disease." 2 

1 Evans: The Divine Law of Cure (Boston, 1881), p. 68. 

2 Ibid., pp. 124-126. 



The New Movement Versus Miracles 211 

Mrs. Eddy likewise naturalizes, so to say, Christ's miracles 
by bringing them down to the level of her own cures. Her 
healing she called divine healing and also Christian Science, to 
indicate, on the one hand, that she considered the Divine Hind 
to be the only source of cures, and, on the other, to identify 
her own cures with Christ's miraculous works. 

"The term Christian Science," she writes, "was intro- 
duced by the author to indicate the scientific system of di- 
vine healing. The revelation consists of two parts : ( 1 ) The 
discovery of this divine Science of Mind-Healing through a 
spiritual sense of the Scriptures, and through the teachings 
of the Comforter as promised by the Master; (2) the proof, 
by present demonstration, that the so-called miracles of 
Jesus did not specially belong to a dispensation now ended, 
but that they illustrate an ever operative divine Principle. 
The operation of this Principle indicates forever the scientific 
order and continuity of being." 1 

The same tendency reappears in Retrospection and Intro- 
spection where we read : 

"The miracles recorded in the Bible which had before 
seemed to me supernatural grew divinely natural and appre- 
hensible, though uninspired interpreters ignorantly pro- 
nounce Christ's healing miraculous instead of seeing therein 
the operation of the divine law." 2 

It is somewhat amusing to find that the authors of the 
Emmanuel Movement, not satisfied with indorsing these ex- 
planations, seriously undertake to establish them scientifically, 
and, then, virtually apologize for their present inability to do so 
with regard to all of Christ's miracles. They unwittingly show 
their true aim and lack of historical perspective when they 
begin their investigation with an a priori principle of expediency 
which automatically vitiates all their subsequent reasonings. 
"A miracle," they boldly assert, "if it is to meet with acceptance 
at the hands of modern men, must be shown to have some 
analogy with facts and phenomena within their knowledge." If 

1 Science and Health, p. 123. 

' Retrospection and Introspection, p. 31. 



212 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

in individual cases tins cannot as yet be done, prudence counsels 
that the miracles be not immediately rejected, but that they 
"be reserved to the day of fuller light; for it would be rash 
to suppose that all the light possible in this matter has been 
vouchsafed us." "The rationalistic criticism of fifty years 
ago," they add, "rejected the healing wonders of Christ. Fuller 
knowledge enables us to smile at the sceptical dogmatism of 
this criticism. Why may it not be that the knowledge of fifty 
years hence will be able to make intelligible some of the narra- 
tives on which faith stumbles today." 

It is not faith, but the lack of it, which stumbles over any 
of Christ's miracles. The underlying idea throughout this 
section is that Christ as "physician and healer of souls and 
bodies of men" must not be thought of as bringing into play 
any but natural forces, but only as having possessed eminently 
what others possess in an ordinary degree, thus ranking among 
the greatest of the world's great physicians. 

"From time to time," we are told, "men have arisen en- 
dowed with a peculiar power to dispel the moral and physical 
maladies of their fellow men. Among these 'the first among 
many brethren' stands the Lord Jesus, the Great Physician. 
Of Him it was said that He taught and healed. Coordinat- 
ing His cures with others that have been wrought in ancient 
and modern times, we obtain a new sense of the nature and 
reality of His mighty works, that removes them from the 
stifling atmosphere [sic!] of the old supernatural vacuum, 
and gives them a place under the starry heavens and among 
the mysterious forces of God's universe." 

Christ's unique personality, Christ's personal human in- 
fluence, such is the source of His cures, and if we bear in mind 
"our own ignorance of the limits to the influence of mind over 
body, we will do well to avoid all hasty dogmatism as to what 
would be possible or impossible to such a one as Christ." x 

The originators of the Emmanuel movement, nevertheless, 
notwithstanding this wise restriction, labor hard to confine 
Christ's miracles within such limits as so-called modern science 
1 Woreester-McComb-Coriat: Religion and Medicine, pp. 341 ff. 



The New Movement Versus Miracles &13 

allows for the healing of disease by mental influence. And 
first of all they exclude altogether certain classes of ailments; 
finding that "there is no mention in the records of His healing 
such diseases as tuberculosis, typhus, diphtheria, and the like." 
As for leprosy which, in the view of modern medical science, 
is incurable, they remind us "that in the ancient world two 
types of leprosy were recognized, the one curable, the other in- 
curable," and that "from the vague description given in the 
gospels we are unable to decide which type is referred to." * 

After eliminating these several classes, they take the case 
of the man stricken with the palsy as a term of comparison, 
and, by a close scrutiny, they derive from it a set of rules which 
are made to fit all the reported cures of Christ. By this means 
they claim to discover, firstly, that Jesus recognized the moral 
causes which in certain cases lie behind the physical disease. 
Their argumentation proceeds as follows : 

"The friends of the sick man want Jesus to heal him as 
it were by a wave of the hand, but Jesus is no magician and 
He knows that the moral malady is at the root of the trouble. 
He is very far indeed from sharing the prevailing theological 
notion of His time that every sickness in itself was evidence 
of sin, open or unconfessed. No ! rather, for Him disease and 
sin are parts of a complex order — the kingdom of evil — to 
overcome which He felt Himself sent by God. His Gospel or 
good news was in essence this, that God must no longer be 
conceived as the author of the misery and torture that make 
of human life a hell. On the contrary, He is Love and a£ 
Love He is ever seeking to express Himself in joy." 2 

In the second place they find that Christ's healing power 
required as a psychological medium and spiritual condition 
faith at least on the part of either healer, patient or friends. 

"This is the rule," they say, "to which there is but one 
clear and necessary exception. In the case of demon posses- 
sion the mental organism was itself so disorganized that 
faith or any other rational or motived act was impossible. 
Jesus in these instances began by soothing the mind and 

1 Worcester-McComb-Coriat: op. cit., p. 345. 
*Ibid., p. 350. 



214 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

distracting it from its obsession, and then, with the naked 
force of His own personality revealing itself in look, gesture 
and word of command, He broke down the structure of hal- 
lucination and delusion which the morbid action of the mind 
had built up and, thereby, He set the sufferer free from his 
disorder. But wherever a measure of self-control was left, 
He demanded faith." x 

Finally, they assert that the secret of Christ's healing was 
an ethical power, dependent, next to God, on communion with 
Him through faith and prayer: 

"He is the appointed Redeemer of mankind," they ex- 
plain, "the Founder of God's kingdom upon earth and, there- 
fore, He was equipped with the power necessary to oppose 
and overcome the whole order of evil, to destroy it, not in its 
outward manifestations only, but in its ultimate causes. His 
power to heal is, therefore, only the visible manifestation of 
another power, His power to heal the guilt and activity of 
sin. This power was not a power given Him once and for all, 
a magical endowment, rather was it an ethical quality, to 
be sustained through communion with God." 2 

It must be acknowledged that this easy and naturally rather 
persuasive explanation has appealed to many who take only 
a secondary interest in the doings of the mind-healers. Not 
infrequently is it assumed as demonstrated that Christ's mir-» 
acles must now no longer be treated as an}'thing else than 
natural mind cures. Some grant this grudgingly and console 
themselves with the consideration that, after all, miracles are 
not essentially necessary proofs of the truth of Christianity. 
Many a one, however, may feel as if the ground was gradually 
slipping from underneath his feet, when he hears the shout 
of triumph in the camp of the atheist over this new important 
victory. But it fell to Mr. Hudson to invert these roles, and to 
go so far — strange to say — as to raise this naturalistic ex- 
plantation to the rank of a proof for the truthworthiness of the 
gospel history. Mr. Hudson thinks of Christ as of a man 

1 Worcester, McComb-Coriat: op. cit., p. 352. 
a Ibid., p. 355. 



The New Movement Versus Miracles 215 

who for some unexplained reason failed to communicate the 
secret of his success to his disciples and future biographers. 

"These," says he, "have recorded his words, but not his 
reasons, for he gave none. If, therefore, science demonstrates 
that the powers that he possessed are possible ; that the con- 
dition of their exercise are precisely what he declared them 
to be ; and that they cannot be exercised without a strict com- 
pliance with those conditions, the internal evidence for the 
truth of his history is overwhelming." 1 

These gentlemen with faint praise and fair words rather 
condemn than commend Christ. To exalt His humanity in 
order to deny His divinity has become a favorite method of 
attack with all those who disbelieve in the supernatural. The 
issue is, therefore, squarely drawn, which we must try to meet 
just as squarely, by examining into the question whether the 
Gospel cures are nothing but extraordinary mind cures, or, 
on the contrary, real miracles which no power, short of the 
divine, could perform. 



Be their pretended objections to Christ's miracles what 
they may, the real difficulty with most modern men lies in 
an unacknowledged hostility to all that transcends the natural 
order. To argue, following the Immanence school of Christian 
apologists that miracles can no longer serve as a criterion for 
the truth of Christianity, because it is impossible to distinguish 
miracles from kindred non-miraculous facts, is to concede more 
to the opponents of the Christian religion than these authors 
were willing to admit. 2 For if we must concede to the modern 
mind healers that Christ's signs and wonders may be signs and 
wonders, indeed, but not miracles in the strict sense of the 
word, we must cease to rest on them as credentials of Christ's 
Divine mission and, especially, of His Divinity. Will not many 

1 Hudson: The Law of Psychic Phenomena, p. 342. 

3 Confer on this point E. Le Roy, in Annates de Philosophie Chr4tienne, 
1906, art. "Essai sur la Notion du Miracle." Also Blondel: "Lettre sur 
l'Apologetique," ibid., January, 1896. These authors based themselves on 
Bergson's philosophy as contained in his Evolution Cre~atrice. 



216 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

at once conclude that the Christian Revelation rests on no 
secure foundation; that it is a sham, or at best a fatal error? 
This inference may not be warranted, but it certainly lies very 
near. For even though we grant that there exist other creden- 
tials to Christ's mission, there yet remains a settled conviction 
that, if Christ be truly the Son of God in the full sense of the 
word, He must have performed the works of God. 

"The fathers undoubtedly made deductions from the 
force of miracles as evidence," says Mozley, "but that the 
person of the Messiah and Son of God who came to be the 
Mediator between God and man, and to atone by His death 
for the sins of the whole world, would, when He came, be 
known and distinguished wholly without any miraculous ele- 
ment in His birth, life or death, simply living and passing 
througli the world in that respect like an ordinary man — 
was an idea which never even occurred to the mind of any 
father and which, had it been presented to him, he would have 
at once discarded." 1 

Nor did the earliest opponents of the gospel question the 
preternatural character of Christ's wonderful works. Two 
explanations, and only two, seemed to them possible: either 
these works were of God, or they must be ascribed to magic. 
The Jews would contend that they were the works of Beelzebub. 
"This man casteth not out devils but by Beelzebub, the prince 
of the devils." 2 Similar views were advocated by the earliest 
anti-Christian writers among the Pagans. Their religious 
skepticism contended with their inherited superstition to raise 
objections against the hope with which Christ's miracles in- 
spired the Christians. 

After the Reformation the nature of these attacks changed. 
Philosophical considerations led the pantheist Spinoza (1632- 
1677) to deny the very possibility of miracles, and the skeptical 
Hume (1771-1776) — followed in the nineteenth century by the 
empiricist John Stewart Mill (1806-1873) and a host of others 
— to impugn not so much the possibility as the credibility of 
miraculous accounts. Woolston (1669-1731), on the other 

1 Mozley: Eight Lectures on Miracles (London, 1895), p. 213. 

2 Matt. 12:24. 



The New Movement Versus Miracles 217 

hand, interpreted the historical miracles of the gospel as so 
many allegorical fables. 1 

The nineteenth century again witnessed a change of front. 
Paulus (1761-1851) refused to see anything miraculous in the 
gospel narratives and devised natural explanations for the 
gospel miracles; Strauss (1808-1874) absolutely rejected this 
miraculous element as so many mythical accretions ; but the 
explanation that in our times finds the largest number of 
votaries bases itself on the hidden powers of nature, and on 
the power of the human mind over them. Tins objection, as 
Father Joyce so well sums it up, states that "the accounts of 
the 'wonder-cures' contained in the Gospels and in some of the 
lives of the saints are in the main true ; but orthodox Christian- 
ity has blundered in reckoning them as supernatural." 2 It is 
to this category of objectors that we must turn; for we have 
now to do with men that, far from denying all divine interven- 
tion in the affairs of men, are rather inclined to exaggerate 
than to minimize the extent of this intervention, looking in 
a very material way up to God as the ever present help in all 
human ills and needs. 

It is important that we should not embark on this discussion 
without taking our bearings. What is a miraculous event? By 
what does it, if at all, distinguish itself from non-miraculous 
marvelous phenomena? St. Thomas defines a miracle to be a 
sense-perceptible fact produced by God outside the order of the 
whole universe. 3 It is obvious to all that this definition is not 
of the nature of a first principle, but that it sums up the in- 
ferences to which an unbiased study of certain facts leads. It 
serves the excellent purpose of making clear from the very 

1 Cf. Spinoza: Tractatus Theologico-Politicus (London, 1862), pp. 120 ff; 
Hume: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (Edinburgh, 1748, 
1880); Mill: Three Essays on Religion (New York, 1874), pp. 217-241; 
Woolston: The Moderator Between the Infidel and the Apostate (1721); 
Discourses on the Miracles of Christ (1727-1729). 

2 Joyce: The Question of Miracles (London, 1914), p. 43. Paulus: Das 
Leben Jesu als Grundlage einer reinen Geschichte des Urchristentums (Hei- 
delberg, 1828); Strauss: Das Leben Jesu (1835-1836); Renan, in his Life 
of Jesus (1863, translated in the same year into English), follows the same 
methods. "Let the gospels be in part legendary," he says in the Introduc- 
tion, "that is evident, since they are full of miracles and the supernatural" 
(p. 17). 

3 Summa Theologica, Pars I, q. 110, art. 4. 



218 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

beginning where exactly we place the difference between Christ's 
miracles and the cures of the mind healers. While the latter 
insist that their healing is natural, we maintain that a study of 
the gospel miracles — to limit ourselves now to these — leads to 
the conclusion that nature, including human nature, possesses 
no power to perform such works, or to perform them in the 
manner in which Christ performed them. We do not say 
that these miracles violate the laws of nature, any more than 
man's free interference violates them; but we do say that a 
higher power intervenes which is not subject to these laws, and 
that this power is God. We do not admit that in order to be 
justified to pronounce something a true miracle, it must be such 
that nature at no time could bring about a similar effect, and 
that, consequently, before calling any fact a miracle, it is neces- 
sary to define the exact limits of the powers of nature; on the 
contrary, we claim that under given circumstances a given 
event may point with moral certainty to God as its direct and 
immediate author. 

Take for instance the question of a miraculous cure. To 
establish its miraculous character, it is not necessary that no 
power capable of coping with this particular disease should 
exist anywhere in nature; it is sufficient that such curative 
powers should not have come into play. To prove this, all 
circumstances bearing on the case must be carefully weighed 
and valued, not only one after another and taken by itself, 
but also in their cumulative force. Where all the circum- 
stances point in one direction, it would be supremely unrea- 
sonable to look for the explanation of the cure in another one. 
A shallow, though specious enough, objection basing itself 
on the impossibility of setting limits to nature's hidden powers, 
insists that it is impossible to decide whether a given effect is 
beyond these powers. 1 To this we reply that though we may be 
unable to define the limits of Nature, such limits certainly exist. 

*Cf. Mill: Three Essays on Religion (New York, 1874), p. 930. "Ac- 
cordingly, when we hear of a prodigy, we always, in these modern times, 
believe that if it really occurred, it was neither the work of God nor of a 
demon, but the consequence of some unknown natural law or of some 
hidden fact." 



The New Movement Versus Miracles 219 

Supernatural intervention is, therefore, always possible, and in 
given cases it is possible, by evidence both positive and negative, 
to establish beyond reasonable doubt the natural or super- 
natural character of a work or event. 

A fact must always be distinguished from its explanations. 
The marvelous character of a cure can be obvious, when it is 
not at all obvious to what the cure itself is to be ascribed. Is 
it trickery? Is it an effect of some unexplored natural law? 
Is it some demon that interferes in human affairs, or is it God 
who thus manifests His power? All these are possibilities that 
cannot be simply dismissed. Yet, withal, it must be plain 
to any one that is willing to see, that circumstantial evidence 
may favor one of these possibilities to such an extent as to 
render the others untenable, and that when indications accumu- 
late and all converge to one solution, a practical certainty is 
reached which bars all prudent doubt. How often is a criminal 
convicted on circumstantial evidence alone, and yet, no one 
believes that justice has miscarried, precisely because circum- 
stantial evidence has carried conviction. So in many practical 
affairs of life, not merely in the natural, but also in the super- 
natural order, circumstantial evidence must point the way. 

We must be satisfied with tracing the great lines of what 
is distinctive in Christ's works in contrast with the works of 
His would-be imitators, developing a little more at length only 
such arguments as are likely to prove the more cogent for our 
present purpose. Three lines of argument may be pursued. 
Some, convinced that organic disease is not directly amenable 
to psychic or mental influence, center their proof on the fact 
that at least some of the diseases reported cured by Christ were 
surely of an organic nature. 1 Others find in a minute examina- 
tion of the reported cures sufficient ground to differentiate them 
from mental cures and to pronounce them miraculous and 

1 Cf. Joyce, op. cit., chap. IV, Miracles and Faith-Healing. Davies, E. 
O.: The Miracles of Jesus, a study of the evidence (London, 1913), pp. 
75-81. "The conclusion we reach, then, is that there is no direct evidence 
that the cures attributed to Jesus were as a class wrought psychothera- 
peutically, and there is no direct and unquestionable evidence that the 
diseases which he is said to have cured were of such a kind as to be 
amenable to psychotherapeutic treatment" (p. 80). 



220 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

divine, while a third one will rest confidently on the judgment 
of Christ Himself, his apostles and their contemporaries, and 
the witness of the early Church. 1 

These arguments are all valuable each one in its own way. 
The first one would probably appeal more to physicians whose 
medical knowledge enables them to draw hard and fast lines 
between organic and merely functional diseases. Scientific 
opinion which a few decades ago seemed to swing towards con- 
ceding to the mind a direct influence even over organic diseases, 
now seems to have swung back, even among nerve specialists, to 
a more conservative view. In the words of Father Joyce, 

"It may be safely said that virtually the whole medical 
profession is agreed that there is not a jot of positive evi- 
dence that suggestion, whether hypnotic or otherwise, can do 
anything to remedy an organic lesion ; that, on the contrary, 
all the evidence hitherto produced goes to show that its cura- 
tive effects are strictly limited to functional derangements." 2 

Against this argument it might be urged that it will be a 
long time before mind healers will be willing to concede this re- 
striction on their trade. They continue to maintain with all 
the sureness of a conviction born of faith and interest that 
organic diseases are not outside the range of mental influence. 
Add to this that the average man is not properly equipped to 
draw a clear distinction between organic and functional dis- 
orders, and it will be seen that the argument though it keeps its 
objective value loses much of its practical usefulness. 

The second argument is more within reach of everybody and 
cannot fail to create a profound impression. Compare one by 
one the miracles of Christ with verified cures of either the com- 
mon mind healer or of the scientific psychotherapist, observe 
not only the nature of the disease and the fact of its cure, but 
also the method of the healing process, the swiftness of the 
cure, and the degree of its stability, as well as any other cir- 
cumstance which may have a bearing on the case, and you are 

*Cf. Joyce, op. cit., pp. 43-53. Davies, op. cit.. pp. 75 ff. Mackenzie, in 
Medicine and the Church (London, 1910). Le Bee, Preuves Midicales du 
Miracle (Paris, 1921). 

a Cf. Joyce, op. cit., p. 49. 



The New Movement Versm Miracles 221 

enabled to form your own opinion which, if unbiased, cannot but 
be favorable to the supernatural character of Christ's works. 
An unbiased attitude is, of course, impossible, when, consciously 
or unconsciously, one undertakes this investigation with the un- 
philosophical principle that miracles are impossible and, there- 
fore, non-existent, or that in any case no testimony concerning 
any so-called miraculous fact is deserving of credence. One 
needs for this work that fairness of spirit which we expect in all 
human concerns and which will not allow the judgment to be 
warped for fear of the foreseen consequences. A prejudiced 
mind can only pass a prejudiced judgment and thus it wrongs 
both itself and the subject-matter with which it deals. 

Easier than both of these and no less effective is the third 
method to which we shall devote a little more space, the more 
so as the first two methods have more frequently been developed 
in detail. What is Christ's own judgment concerning His cures? 
In what light did the early Christians and their contemporaries 
contemplate them? Such is the problem. The solution must 
lie in an examination of the documents we possess. The advan- 
tage we expect to derive therefrom is this, that Christ's author- 
ity cannot easily be set aside. Though His divinity is called 
into question by all rationalizers, yet even among them they 
that would impugn his moral rectitude are very few. His own 
testimony, therefore, deserves the very greatest consideration* 
For large classes of people it must constitute a supreme argu- 
ment; for all but such as are prepared to class Christ among 
the greatest frauds of history, it must be of great weight, 

To know what Christ thought of His miracles is paramount 
in our problem. Only secondary to this in importance is the 
testimony of His apostles and contemporaries. After all, it is 
their witnessing to which all modern authors must refer. If 
we cannot believe their account of the impression Christ's 
miracles created in those times, how can we believe their testi- 
mony concerning the miracles themselves? And if, basing our- 
selves on the inadmissibility of true miracles, we reject at the 
very outset anything that cannot be explained naturally, what 
belief can we still give to the rest of the Scriptures? We shall, 
therefore, take for granted the historicity of the gospel narra- 



222 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

tives in their entirety, and judge of Christ's signs and wonders 
in this new "old" light. 



"When we hear of a prodigy, we always, in these modern 
times, believe that if it really occurred, it was neither the 
work of God nor of a demon, but the consequence of some 
unknown natural law or of some hidden fact." x 

These words of John Stuart Mill, written long ago, have 
since become the creed of vast numbers of men. It forestalls any 
kind of reasoning for it appeals to what is unknown. Because 
of its finality it proves an effective bar to all inquiries into the 
truth of the facts that are reported miraculous and into the 
character of these facts. Nay, it is even maintained that those 
who base their lives on the historical truth of Christ's miracles 
strangely misread the mind of Christ; that Christ never in- 
tended his works to be marks of His mission, and that in the 
early ages they never were considered such. To quote the same 
essay of John Stuart Mill: 

"No one thought it worth while to contradict any alleged 
miracles, because it was the belief of the age that miracles in 
themselves proved nothing, since they could be worked by a 
lying spirit as well as by the Spirit of God." * 

This statement is a most gratuitous assertion as we shall 
forthwith show. 

No one that has ever read the Gospel according to St. John 
can truthfully maintain that in the days of St. John Christ's 
miracles were discounted. The author himself announces at 
the end of his Gospel the purpose of his work to be to bring 
people to Christ by reporting some of His miracles and sayings. 
"Many other signs also did Jesus in the sight of His disciples 
which are not written in this book; but these are written 
that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son ^of 
God and that believing you may have life in His name." 

*Mill: Three Essays on Religion, p. 230. 

■ Ibid., p. 237. 

3 John 20:30-31 and Isa. 53:1. 



The New Movement Versus Miracles 223 

To show by Christ's miracles that Christ was the promised 
Messias and the Son of God ; such, in brief, was his object, which 
he pursued by appealing to the testimony of both Christ and 
His contemporaries, and by contrasting favorably the attitude 
of the masses with that of the higher classes. Many of the 
former believed, because they said to themselves: "When the 
Christ cometh, shall He do more miracles than these which this 
man doth?" x This plain, open, almost intuitive judgment of 
the common man places in high relief the sombre unbelief of the 
erudite Scribe and the punctilious Pharisee whose self-sufficiency 
and class pride were an insurmountable barrier to any act of 
faith. "Whereas He had done so many miracles before them, 
they believed not in Him, that the saying of Isaias, the prophet, 
might be fulfilled which he said: 'Lord, who hath believed our 
hearing, and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been re- 
vealed?' " 2 But though they failed to believe, they could not 
fail to be impressed with the mighty works of the Savior. For 
we read : "The chief priests, therefore, and the Pharisees, gath- 
ered a council and said : 'What do we ; for this man doth many 
miracles? If we let him alone so, all will believe in him, and 
the Romans will come and take away our place and nation.' " 3 
This attitude of interested opposition has not changed much in 
the course of the ages. But whatever else unbelievers may say 
in their self-defense, they cannot truthfully plead that Christ 
did not propose His miracles as signs to lead men into the truth 
of the Gospel. 

"I speak to you," he told them plainly, "and you believe 
not. The works that I do in the name of my Father, they 
give testimony of me ; but you do not believe because you are 
not of my sheep. ... If I do not the works of my Father, 
believe me not; but if I do, though you will not believe me, 
believe the works, that you may know and believe that the 
Father is in me and I in the Father." 4 

These citations might be multiplied without adding substan- 
tially to the strength of the argument. We reason thus : The 

^ohn 7:31. Cf. 10:41. 

2 Ibid., 12:37. 

3 Ibid., 11:47. 

*Ibid., 10:25 and 37. Cf. Ibid., 5:36. 



224 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

Gospel of St. John fully refutes the assertion, ignorantly made 
and ignorantly repeated, that miracles did not serve in the be- 
ginning as credentials not only of Christ's Divine mission, but 
also of His Divinity. It is mainly on the strength of these 
works that people accepted His teaching with regard both to 
moral precepts and to Himself. Christ knew of this impression 
made by His cures and encouraged it. But if these works were, 
not supernatural, they but proved that Christ was naturally 
endowed with remarkable healing powers. In that case, He ex- 
acted belief in Himself under false pretenses. Either, there- 
fore, we must cease to look upon Him as the ambassador of God, 
or we must admit that His reported cures were more than 
faith cures. 

To this it will probably be objected that we cannot accept 
St. John's Gospel as historical ; that it is theology, the work of 
a believer, a mystic and a propagandist, but not of a historian. 
This we deny ; but even where granted, the argument would still 
show in what light Christ's miracles were received at that time. 
But lest any suspicion to this effect should weaken our con- 
clusion, we will show that the three Synoptic Gospels, no less 
than St. John, make Christ's miracles basic of His whole reli- 
gion. Friend and foe acknowledged their preternatural char- 
acter, the former, to rejoice in them as evident signs of God's 
goodness to men; the latter, to discredit them as the work of 
unclean spirits. 

"Every kingdom, divided against itself, shall be made 
desolate," our Lord replied to the latter imputation, "and 
every house or city, divided against itself, shall not stand. 
And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself, 
how, then, shall his kingdom stand. . . . But if I by the 
Spirit of God cast out devils, then is the Kingdom of God 
come upon you." x 

No one that is not blinded by prejudice can fail to get the 
import of Christ's words. He plainly points to the supernat- 
ural origin of His works as credentials to His mission. He goes 
further: refusal to see the finger of God in the works of God 

1 Matt. 12:25-28,31-35. 



The New Movement Versus Miracles 225 

he does not attribute to lack of discernment in his hearers, but 
stigmatizes as the sin against the Holy Ghost, which shall be 
forgiven neither in this world nor in the world to come. 

Instructive is the answer Christ gave to the messengers of 
St. John the Baptist, who had come to inquire whether He was 
"the one that was to come, or whether they should look for an- 
other." He refers them to the prophets, to His own works 
and to the marvelous harmony that existed between prophecy 
and fulfillment: 

"Go and relate to John what you have heard and seen: 
'The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf 
hear, the dead rise again, the poor have the gospel preached 
to them.' And, blessed is he that shall not be scandalized in 
Me." x 

Finally, if there could be any doubt at all concerning the 
importance of miracles as proofs of Christ's divine mission and 
concerning its synoptical record, the woes pronounced upon the 
towns and cities of Galilee would surely remove it. 

"Then began He to upbraid the cities wherein were done 
the most of His miracles, for that they had not done pen- 
ance. Woe to thee, Corozain! Woe to thee, Bethsaida! for 
if in Tyre and Sidon had been wrought the miracles that have 
been wrought in you, they had long ago done penance in 
sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, it shall be more 
tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than 
for you. And thou, Capharnaum ! Shalt thou be exalted up 
to heaven? Thou shalt go down even unto hell. For if in 
Sodom had been wrought the miracles that have been wrought 
in thee, perhaps it had remained unto this day. But I say 
unto you, that it shall be more tolerable for the land of 
Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee." 2 

How could Jesus have resorted to such vehement and terrific 
vituperations, if His works were no more than ordinary mind- 
cures? How could we still believe in His honesty, if, on the 
false pretenses of supernatural powers, He demanded on the 

1 Matt. 11:4-5. 
2 Ibid., 11:20-24, 



226 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

part of the people faith in Himself and in His work? How, in 
fine, could we explain such statements of fact made by the 
evangelists as that "His fame spread throughout Syria," that 
"much people followed Him from Galilee and from Decapolis 
and from Jerusalem and from Judea and from beyond the 
Jordan," and that "they presented to Him all sick people that 
were taken with divers diseases and torments, and such as were 
possessed by devils, and lunatics and those that had the palsy, 
and He cured them all." x His fame reached the ears even of 
the civil magistrates, and the superstitious Herod dreaded lest 
John whom he had beheaded had risen from the dead : "This is 
John the Baptist. He is risen from the dead, and, therefore, 
mighty works show themselves in him." 2 Later on, when fa- 
vored through the cowardice rather than the courtesy of Pilate 
with a personal interview with this famous wonder worker, he 
was "very glad ; for he was desirous for a long time to see Him, 
because he had heard many things of Him, and he hoped to see 
some sign wrought by Him." 3 

If it could be shown that all these cures in reality were noth- 
ing but mind-cures, not essentially different from those which 
faith-healers have wrought at all times, we would as a matter of 
course, surrender our judgment to evidence. But those who 
have tried to prove such a relationship have never been able 
to do so without doing violence to the sacred texts. In order to 
be free to select arbitrarily such miracles as may prove their 
contentions with a certain show of probability, they must tam- 
per with the documents until these yield exactly what is wanted 
of them. Schmiedel in the Encyclopedia Biblica is not ashamed 
to lay down as a fundamental rule of exegesis with regard to 
the facts now under discussion that "only those of the class 
which even at the present day physicians are able to effect by 
psychological methods" are historical. With this arbitrary 
rule it is easy to prove anything, because it enables the sup- 
posedly objective critic to choose among the facts just those 
that prove his point and to reject all the others as unhistorical. 

*Matt. 5:24-25. 

2 Ibid., 14:2. 

3 Luke 23:2. 



The New Movement Versm Miracles 227 

Of forty-six references to miracles and miraculous powers 
enumerated by Mr. Davies as found in the gospel narratives, 
the higher critics rule out all but eleven which are found in the 
'triple tradition' of the three Synoptics. The oft-repeated 
assertion that Christ wrought many miracles is dismissed as an 
unjustifiable generalization on the part of the evangelists. 
The other thirt3 7 -four references are just as summarily dealt 
with. Eleven cases remain; but even these are hardly pliant 
enough for their purposes. Interpretation, however, knows how 
to deal with these. Take, for instance, the case of the raising of 
the daughter of Jairus, which belongs to the triple tradition. 
All the evangelists assert that the girl was really dead when 
Christ arrived at the house; but this the modern exegetes will 
not and cannot admit and, consequently, speak of this case as 
one of "reanimation at the point of death." x Such methods 
make explaining easy, and worthless. 

For a more detailed study Drs. Worcester and McComb 
select the case of the man stricken with the palsy. It is a typi- 
cal example of how the higher critics manipulate the simple 
statements of the gospels : 

"In the story before us," they tell us, "it is said that 
Jesus seeing their faith proceeded to pronounce his absolu- 
tion. First, and mainly, perhaps, our attention is called to 
the faith of the sick man's friends. The patient, then, has 
been for some time living in an atmosphere of faith. The re- 
ports of Christ's healing work have reached his companions 
and have stirred them to hope and trust. This very hope 
and trust have created a psychological atmosphere favorable 
to the sufferer's eventual recovery. Moreover, it has tended 
to awaken faith in the patient himself. As in the case of the 
daughter of Jairus, Christ feels Himself mighty in an at- 
mosphere free from doubt and fear. We can see, too, how 
a strong faith on the part of this unhappy man was devel- 
oped. The very fact that he allowed his friends to carry him 
to Christ showed that faith had already germinated in his 
heart. Every element in the strange and never-to-be-forgot- 
ten scene in which he is to be for the moment the central 
figure was calculated to develop this germ, to affect power- 
1 Worcester-McComb: Religion and Medicine (New York, 1908), p. 345. 



228 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

fully his imagination, and to arouse all his slumbering moral 
forces. . . . All tins must have tended to create expectant 
attention, faith, confidence, hope — the psychical conditions 
of a cure. We conclude, then, that the miraculousness of 
Christ's healing power did not consist in his refusal to use 
secondary causes, but rather in the Divine Love and grace 
which moved Him to His cures, and which His cures symbol- 
ized to the spiritually susceptible mind." x 

The whole process is very simple. Forsooth, there is hardly 
any need of Christ at all, so automatically does the cure effect 
itself through the mind of the patient. Yet, it seems rather 
strange that while faith was all along active in this mind, the 
cure awaited the word of command, "Arise, take up thy bed 
and walk," and then was sudden and complete. Do the modern 
mind-healers thus cure their patients? Previously to this, the 
sick man had been told, "Thy sins are forgiven thee" ; after 
that occurred incidentally a discussion with the Pharisees 
bearing on the powers of the Son of Man, during which discus- 
sion the man remained sick awaiting the word that would cure 
him. On the command of Christ, the man arose, took up his 
bed and walked. Is it really expected of us that we should be- 
lieve this cure to be entirely due to the faith of this man? And 
does it make no difference to the higher critics that Jesus ex- 
pressly worked this miracle to prove that He had authority 
on earth to forgive sin? With these remarks in mind, the ex- 
planation of the rationalists must be pronounced entirely un- 
satisfactory, as it simply would inflict on Christ the stigma of 
a vulgar cheat. It may be very simple, but it is not very con- 
vincing. 

What should be decisive against all attempts at a natural- 
istic explanation is the fact that Christ made no distinction 
between various forms of disease. All evangelists are emphatic 
on this point. After healing St. Peter's mother-in-law, He 
cured all that were brought to Him : "And when the sun was 
down, all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought 
them to Him. But He laying His hands on every one of them, 
healed them. And devils went out from many, crying out and 

1 Worcester-McComb: op. cit., p. 353. 






The New Movement Versus Miracles 229 

saying: 'Thou art the Son of God.'" 1 St. Matthew relates 
that "Jesus went about all the cities and towns, teaching in 
their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the Kingdom, and 
healing every disease and every infirmity." And again: "There 
came to Him great multitudes, having with them the dumb, the 
blind, the lame, the maimed, and many others ; and they cast 
them down at His feet, and He healed them, so that the multi- 
tudes marveled, seeing the dumb speak, the lame walk, the 
blind see." 2 

Finally, let it not be forgotten that our records present 
Christ, not only as healing the sick, but as having power over all 
Nature. The elements were submissive to Him; He changed 
water into wine, multiplied the bread, walked on the sea, stilled 
the tempest, and did many things which under those circum- 
stances were perfectly miraculous. The veracity of Christ 
and of His apostles is at stake. The critics will either have 
to admit the miraculous character of their works, or return to 
the bolder, more irreverent, but more logical views of the ear- 
lier opponents of Christianity, who did not hesitate to call the 
veracity of the sacred writers into question. 

We may now sum up our conclusions by asserting that 
hypothesis has succeeded hypothesis, but all have proved futile 
and unsatisfactory to account for the miraculous element in the 
gospels. None of them has stood the test of time. True, as 
long as it is maintained that miracles do not, because they can- 
not, happen, it will still be necessary to resort to one or the 
other of these hypotheses. One thing, however, should be be- 
yond dispute, that if we do not alter the gospel narrative, the 
cures there recorded are undoubtedly true miracles. Mr. E. O. 
Davies in his interesting study on the miracles of Christ, puts 
the problem that confronts us as follows : 

"Taking the narratives as they stand," he writes, "with- 
out modifying them in the least, have we a right to say that 
the alleged cures are no longer miracles ? Do our narratives 
describe what is still marvelous for us to-day, or can they 
bear, exactly as they stand, a psychotherapeutic construc- 
tion?" 

1 Luke 4:40-41. 

2 Matt. 9:35, and 15:30-31. 



230 Christian Science and tlie Catholic Faith 

This question he answers, on the whole, in favor of the 
miraculous character of Christ's cures. 

"In nearly all the cases," he concludes, "where the at- 
tempt has been made to eliminate the miraculous from nar- 
ratives of special miracles, the result has been obtained 
through modifying the record. In one case only does Keim 
in his Jesu von Nazara succeed in lending plausibility to the 
psychotherapeutic explanation of special miracles without 
toning down the language used by the evangelists to describe 
the complaint. ..." 

Then Mr. Davies continues: 

"It will be well for us at this point to indicate clearly 
the miraculous element present in the narratives. . . . Take 
the first class : healings of bodily ailments. A certain noble- 
man's son was sick of fever and was described as dying. Je- 
sus healed him by a word spoken at a distance. Simon's 
wife's mother suffered from a great fever. Jesus rebuked the 
fever and it left her. Psoriasis or Elephantiasis Gracorwm — 
it matters not which for our present purpose — is healed by 
a touch and a word. Congenital blindness is cured by rub- 
bing the eyes with clay, the sufferer afterwards washing in 
the pool of Siloam. A case of infirmity of eighteen years' 
standing was cured by a word and a touch. A man, suffer- 
ing from dropsy, was healed instantaneously. One of the 
disciples smote the servant of the highpriest and struck off 
his ear. Jesus touched his ear and healed him. 

"Consider next the second class : healings of nervous dis- 
eases. A helpless paralytic was cured by a command. A 
man with a withered hand, also, was healed forthwith by a 
command. A case of paralysis, in which the patient is de- 
scribed as being at the point of death, was cured at a dis- 
tance. 

"There is further the third class: healings of nervous 
and psychical disorders. Demoniacs were cured of aggra- 
vated forms of epilepsy and mania by a command or a re- 
buke. In all these cases, taking the narratives as we find 
them, we have present a miraculous element. The events be- 
longing to the other four classes above enumerated 1 are all 

1 These other four classes are: (1) revelations of power in the nature 
of Christ (walking on the sea); (2) revelation of Jesus in nature and 









The New Movement Versus Miracles 231 

miracles. No mere exegesis of the narratives can remove the 
impression that they describe what is still marvelous for us 
to-day. 

"Speaking, generally, then, the records as they stand are 
miraculous in character. And this being so, it is fair to sup- 
pose, that the evangelists did not regard differently those 
narratives, whose face value can be claimed to be not incon- 
sistent with a psychotherapeutic explanation." x 

It is useless to spend more time on this matter. Any un- 
prejudiced student must come to these conclusions: 

1. Christ makes no distinction between curable and incur- 
able diseases, but heals them all with equal facility. 

2. No visible remedy is employed that could account for 
these cures. Nor does Jesus resort to the methods of the hyp- 
notists or faith-healers. If, on a few occasions, the cure is 
accompanied with certain ceremonies, like the touch of the hand, 
the application of clay, or the anointing with oil, these have no 
direct physical bearing on the ailment, but convey some sym- 
bolical meaning, teach some moral lesson, or prepare perhaps 
the institution of some sacrament. In any case, the means em- 
ployed are not of such a nature that they could materially con- 
tribute to the cure. 

3. The faith which Jesus ordinarily asks of those whom 
He heals is not that of the modern mind-healers, but a faith 
in His own Divine mission. This, of course, implied the faith 
in His power to heal ; but of itself it was no guarantee that the 
cure would infallibly take place. There is no indication what- 
ever that the faith demanded by Christ was anything similar 
to the understanding of the unreality of disease, which Mrs. 
Eddy exacts as the essential requisite for any complete cure. 

4. The cures of Jesus were instantaneous, and lasting. 
They were of a nature to be observable by any and all interested 
enough to investigate. Christ worked them in public anywhere 
and everywhere. They furnished the chief reason why people 

upon the organic world (draughts of fishes and stater in fish's mouth) ; 
(3) power upon organic world (multiplied loaves and fishes, water made 
wine, fig-tree withered) ; (4) power upon the inorganic world (stilling of 
the tempest). 
1 Davies: The Miracles of Jesus (London, 1913), pp. 17-21. 



232 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

flocked to Him from all sides and followed Him. They can- 
not, therefore, be simply denied, or explained away by those 
who first pervert the historical records, and, then, undertake 
to show how easy it is to do the same sort of works. The mir- 
acles of Christ, in spite of the many attempts to do so, have 
not been disproved, but, on the contrary, stand out in bolder 
relief when brought out in correlation with the cures of the 
mind-healers. 



A few words must be added concerning the gift of miracles 
in the Church. That Christ has promised this gift to His 
disciples cannot be gainsaid: 

"These signs shall follow them that believe. In My Name 
they shall cast out devils ; they shall speak with new tongues ; 
they shall take up serpents, and, if they shall drink any 
deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They shall lay their 
hands upon the sick, and they shall recover." 1 

That the apostles and others of the earlier disciples exer- 
cised these powers, is a matter of history. That the promise 
was not limited to them, but was to be permanent and a char- 
acteristic sign of the society of believers in the Church through- 
out the ages, has been the common belief of the Church from 
the beginning and is based on Scriptural testimony. But that 
this gift of healing was to be institutional in the sense that a 
certain class of men should be regularly, or even temporarily, 
endowed with it, is an unwarrantable inference. Still more 
unwarranted is the claim that all true believers must possess 
immunity from material harm and the power of restoring the 
health of others. If Christ's words are to be taken in this ultra- 
literal sense, they must be taken so in their entirety, and, then, 
we may well challenge all mind-healers to prove their faith by 
their works. Let them speak with new tongues. Let them take 
up serpents; let them drink some deadly thing: if they remain 
unhurt, then, and not till then, will we be willing to accept their 
private interpretation of this passage of Holy Writ. 

a Mark 16:17-18. 






The New Movement Versus Miracles 233 

But now, to return to our proposition: we claim that the 
gift of miracles is promised to the true Church, and that it is 
one of her characteristics ; that there has been no age from the 
beginning of Christianity when miracles have been wholly ab- 
sent. This is not an endorsement of every miraculous narra- 
tive to be met with in the course of historical reading. Just as 
real coin does not prevent counterfeit money from getting into 
circulation, until it is suppressed, and just as the existence of 
counterfeit money does not disprove, but rather proves the 
existence of real money, so the existence of many, not suffi- 
ciently authenticated, miraculous narratives cannot be adduced 
as a disproof of real miraculous cures. 

To limit ourselves to our own times, we may safely chal- 
lenge the world to look dispassionately and with a fair and 
open mind into the events at Lourdes. Here we have works 
that are not performed in a corner, but are open to the investi- 
gation of every qualified physician. The annals of Lourdes go 
back to 1868. A special bureau in charge of a physician con- 
scientiously investigates all reported cures. The history of 
some of its more famous cases has been repeatedly written. The 
works of Henri Lasserre and of Dr. Boissarie are well known 
and have been translated into many languages. The Histoire 
Critique des Evenements de Lourdes, by the abbe Bertrin, is re- 
plete with detailed accounts of authentic cures, the reality of 
which has been proved beyond the possibility of a doubt. The 
English reader may be referred to Dr. de Grandmaison's book 
entitled: Twenty Cures at Lourdes Medically Discussed}- We 
may particularly recall the remarkable, sudden cure of Pierre 
de Rudder who had been suffering for so long from a compound 
fracture in his left leg. 2 Many other cases are scarcely less 
remarkable. But to enter into details would lead us too far; 
we can only refer to the works which treat professionally of 
this subject. The following summary, by the abbe Bertrin, 
taken from the Catholic Encyclopedia, must suffice : 

"The estimate that about 4000 cures have been obtained 

at Lourdes within the first fifty years of the pilgrimage is 

1 Published in 1912, translated in 1920. 
a Cf. De Grandmaison, op. cit., pp. 140-146. 



234 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

undoubtedly considerably less than the actual number. The 
Bureau des Const at ations stands near the shrine, and there 
are recorded and checked the certificates of maladies, and 
also the certificates of cure ; it is free to all plvysicians, what- 
ever their nationality or religious belief. Consequently, on 
an average, from two to three hundred physicians annually 
visit this marvelous clinic. As to the nature of the diseases 
which are cured, nervous disorders, so frequently mentioned, 
do not even furnish the fourteenth part of the whole: 278 
have been counted out of a total of 3962. The present writer 
has published the number of cases of each disease or infir- 
mity, among them tuberculosis, tumors, sores, cancers, deaf- 
ness, blindness, etc. The Annates des Sciences Physiques, a 
skeptical review whose chief editor is Dr. Charles Richet, Pro- 
fessor of the medical faculty of Paris, said in the course of a 
long article, apropos of this faithful stud}' : 'On reading it, 
unprejudiced minds cannot but be convinced that the facts 
stated are authentic' " * 

1 Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. IX, p. 390, art. "Lourdes." 



CHAPTER XV 

THE LATEST EVENTS IN CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 

None of the predictions frequently made concerning Chris- 
tian Science either that it would soon disintegrate on the death 
of the Founder, or that, on the contrary, it would continue its 
growth by leaps and bounds, has so far been realized. Indica- 
tions are not wanting, however, that Christian Science has 
passed the zenith of its strength and popularity. Christian 
Science, indeed, continues its stormy history with losses and 
gains to be recorded pretty much in the same way as before 
Mrs. Eddy's death on December 3, 1910; yet, at present, 
destructive forces seem to be more in evidence than its less 
spectacular constructive work. Even a hasty glance at the 
latest literature issuing from their ranks will prove this asser- 
tion. While free lectures in theaters and public halls continue 
to be given by members of the Board of Lectureship of the 
Mother Church, and while works appear of the style of Mr. 
Hayes' The Lady in White 1 whose aim is "to support the dis- 
coverer and founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, 
Pastor, Poet, Author, who was and is in her real selfhood the 
Elect Lady of the Gospel," on the other hand, many signs 
point to elements of revolt against Christian Science autocracy 
even in such as remain loyally devoted to Christian Science 
principles. We refer to works of the stamp of Mr. Kratzer's 
The Christian Science Church, which he calls "a friendly re- 
view of its administration and a plea for liberty in Christian 
Science," and in which — in the friendliest spirit, as is always 
done when Christian Scientists fall out — he offers unbidden his 
unwelcome service "to help the organization shake off the swad- 
dling clothes which it has outgrown." 2 

1 Hayes: The Lady in White (New York, 1921), Preface p. xi. 
2 JCratzer: The Christian Science Church (Chicago, 1914), p. 49. 
235 



236 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

But these are faint murmurs of dissatisfaction and not likely 
to exert any notable influence over the general course of Chris- 
tian Science. Of vastly greater significance are the dissensions 
that every now and then crop up almost anywhere in Christian 
Scientism and are especially virulent in its center, The Mother 
Church, the First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massa- 
chusetts. As briefly as possible we shall here sum up these 
latest events that mark directly or indirectly the passing of 
Mrs. Eddy. Ominous rumblings of a coming storm were heard 
repeatedly during the last years of her life, but the real out- 
burst came only within the last few years. 

First in line, though not in importance, was the suit insti- 
tuted by her son with others as "next friends" against some 
ten prominent Christian Scientists who were represented as 
keeping Mrs. Eddy under their control for personal reasons. 
To indicate the trend of events, a few explanatory notes on 
Mrs. Eddy's earlier years are here in order. Mrs. Eddy, as 
already mentioned, had one only son whom she named after 
his father, her first husband, George Washington Glover. In 
her autobiographical romance she indulges in some touching 
paragraphs about this boy of hers, how he was separated from 
her when quite young and how "the night he was taken from her 
she knelt by his side throughout the dark hours hoping 
for a vision of relief from this trial." * A truer picture, how- 
ever, is given us in the words of her father who in his blunt way 
is reported to have said of her : "Mary acts like an old ewe that 
won't own its lamb. She won't have the boy near her." 2 The 
boy was adopted by the nurse that had tended to him ever since 
his birth, and from 1857, when he removed with his foster par- 
ents to Minnesota, until 1878, his mother evinced not the slight- 
est interest in him. By that time he was himself married and 
had two children. The year 1878 was an eventful one for Mrs. 
Eddy. There was trouble brewing in her little flock of disciples. 
Kennedy, though long since passed out of her life, still remained 
fresh in her thought. The dread of malicious animal magnetism 
was fast becoming an obsession. SpofFord she had excom- 

1 Introspection and Retrospection, p. 21. 

2 Milmine : op. cit., p. 26. 



The Latest Events in Christian Science 237 

municated. The law-courts were kept busy with her litigations. 
Kennedy, Tuttle, Stanley and Spofford were sued to recover 
money from them for one reason or another; Spofford was 
sued a second time in the famous witchcraft case. In October 
her husband and Arens were arrested on a charge of conspiracy 
to murder Spofford. 1 Under these circumstances Mrs. Eddy 
bethought herself of her son. She probably wondered whether 
he could fit in with her designs. She sent him a telegram ask- 
ing him to meet her at Cincinnati, but did not herself keep the 
appointment. Finally, she invited him to come to Boston, 
where mother and son met after a separation of twenty-three 
years. After this first interview they met again occasionally, 
but it was never again of Mrs. Eddy's seeking. In 1887 she 
positively forbade him to come. 

"I," she wrote to him, "want quiet and Christian life alone 
with God, when I can find intervals for a little rest. You are 
not what I had hoped to find you, and I am changed. The 
world, the flesh and evil I am at war with, and if any one 
comes to me it must be to help me and not to hinder me in 
this warfare." 2 

On January 2, 1907, Mr. Glover, in company with his 
daughter, paid his mother a last visit and was shocked at her 
physical condition and at the rambling, incoherent nature of 
her conversation. Mr. Glover understood her to mean that 
she was kept under restraint by the persons with whom she 
lived and resolved to take steps to break the ring which made 
approach to her almost impossible. On March 1, he began an 
action in behalf of his mother against Calvin Frye, Alfred Far- 
low and the officers of The Mother Church asking "for an ad- 
judication that Mrs. Eddy was incompetent through age and 
failing faculties to manage her estate; that a receiver be ap- 
pointed and that the various defendants named be required to 
account for alleged misuse of her property." 3 This suit must 
have caused Mrs. Eddy no little annoyance. Her business 
abilities, though, did not forsake her in this emergency. Within 

1 Milmine, op. cit., pp. 250-261. 

2 Eddy: letter dated October 31, 1887, quoted by Milmine, p. 455. 

3 Ibid., pp. 456-458. 



238 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

six days she met the action of her son and self-styled friends by 
the declaration of a trusteeship for the control of her estate, 
thus forcing them, in the end, to withdraw their suit. 

About this time Mrs. Eddy became dissatisfied with her resi- 
dence at Pleasant View. Mesmerism, the primal source of all her 
troubles, had at last found her retreat, and, as in her mind it 
had a tendency to become localized, she must absolutely change 
her abode. A splendid mansion was bought at Newton, a 
suburb of Boston, and remodeled in all haste, regardless of cost, 
several hundred laborers being employed day and night at this 
work. On January 26, 1908, Mrs. Eddy left forever her splen- 
did mansion near Concord, New Hampshire, where she had 
resided for the last seventeen years. 

"Extraordinary precautions were taken to prevent acci- 
dents. A pilot engine preceded the locomotive which drew 
Mrs. Eddy's special train, and the train was followed by a 
third engine to prevent the possibility of a rear end col- 
lision." x 

When she arrived at her new home, she had to be lifted out 
of her carriage and carried into the house by one of her male 
attendants. 

But despite these infirmities and her eighty-seven years 
Mrs. Eddy was apparently still on the watch for possible rivals, 
and with the help of her spiritual household was able to frus- 
trate any design that tended to diminish the luster of her own 
achievements. First in importance after The Mother Church 
in Boston was the First Church of Christ, Scientist, in New 
York City. The latter was almost as much the personal work 
of Mrs. Augusta E. Stetson as the former was that of Mrs. 
Eddy. A magnificent church edifice, erected at a cost of 
$1,250,000 and dedicated as soon as completed free of debt, 
testified to the ardent zeal of this disciple. Mrs. Stetson could 
boast that besides herself not a member of the Mother Church 
had contributed one dollar for its erection. Provision had been 
made in the church edifice itself for the work of the practi- 
tioners, some twenty-five of whom could meet their patients there 
1 Milmine: op. cit., p. 458. 



The Latest Events in Christian Science 239 

in separate rooms designed and equipped for that very pur- 
pose. 1 Here Mrs. Stetson organized her band of healers, met 
them daily at noon for spiritual instruction and trained them 
presumably in the ways of the Founder, specializing, so it seems, 
on her most abstruse and most questionable doctrines. Sex mat- 
ters, spiritual generation and similar extravagances of Mrs. 
Eddy's loomed large in these meetings. 

This practice, and the whole trend of Mrs. Stetson's teach- 
ing, was offensive not only to Mrs. Eddy, but also to not a few 
Christian Scientists of New York who on that account sepa- 
rated from the First Church and founded branch churches in 
other parts of the City free from Mrs. Stetson's influence. 2 
Mrs. Stetson herself sums up her teaching in the following 
concise statement : "I declared for the nothingness of material 
generation, and the greatness, allness of the spiritual man and 
the spiritual universe." 3 Over her followers Mrs. Stetson ex- 
ercised an influence comparable only to that of Mrs. Eddy 
in her palmiest days. No wonder the report went abroad that 
Mrs. Stetson was in training to become Mrs. Eddy's successor. 
This rumor, even had it been entirely groundless, was enough to 
mar the friendship of more than a quarter of a century's dura- 
tion between Mrs. Stetson and her idolized teacher. From the 
day that it reached Mrs. Eddy's ear, Mrs. Stetson's position 
in Christian Scientism was doomed. 

As the work of First Church in New York, in spite of 
numerous defections, had prospered to such an extent that as 
many as two to three hundred people had to stand on Sunday 
mornings, Mrs. Stetson remedied these conditions in 1908 by 
providing an overflow service in the Reading Room. Before 
long the following by-law appeared in the Church Manual and, 
put an end to this practice: "A Church of Christ, Scientist, 
shall not hold two or more Sunday services at the same hour." 4 

1 Stetson: Vital Issues (New York, 1917), p. 105. 

2 Ibid., p. 109. "Some of the practitioners began early to cavil at and 
criticize the incisive methods of handling the animal impulses. ... It was 
not, however, so much the challenging of language as it was the burning 
incision of spiritual truth into the strongholds of mortal belief that gave 
rise to charges against the character of these meetings." 

• Ibid., p. 110. 

4 Church Manual, Art. XVII, sect. 4. 



240 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

If Mrs. Stetson had been less infatuated with her own impor- 
tance, she would have accepted this almost personal rebuff as a 
warning of an impending catastrophe. As others had done 
before her for their undoing, she rested too securely on Mrs. 
Eddy's former professions of friendship. She now proposed, 
in order to remedy the crowded condition of her congregation, 
to build on the fashionable Riverside Drive a church which was 
to "rival in beauty of architecture any other religious struc- 
ture in America." x The plot for the proposed buildings was 
secured late in November, 1908, at a price of $390,000. 

This was almost like throwing the gauntlet down before the 
authorities in Boston. Whatever may have been in Mrs. Stet- 
son's mind, the Boston group of Scientists seemed to accept it 
as such, or rather to look upon these ambitions as most dan- 
gerous symptoms of a disease that needed the surgeon's knife 
without delay. Already on December 5, the Christian Science 
Sentinel brought several editorials that censured the project in 
the most direct manner. In an article entitled "Consistency" 
we read the following apostrophe: 

"Are you striving in Christian Science to be the best 
Christian on earth, or are you striving to have the most 
costly edifice on the earth? . . . Mrs. Eddy has continued to 
declare against the display of material things, and has said 
that the less we have of them the better. Since God has 
taught her that matter is unreal and Spirit is the only real- 
ity, any other position would be unscientific." 

In the same issue another article entitled One Mother 
Church in Christian Science has the following: 

"Concerning these news items it is to be said that Mrs. 
Eddy was not 'known to be profoundly pleased' with what 
purports to be the plans of the First Church of Christ, Scien- 
tist, of New York City; for she learned of this proposed rival 
to The Mother Church for the first time from the daily press. 
Three leading facts remain immortal in the history of Chris- 
tian Science, namely: 1. This Science is already estab- 
lished, and it has the support of all true Christian Scien- 
tists throughout the world. 2. Any competition or any 
stetson: Vital Issues, p. 123, 127. Snowden: op. cit., p. 184. 



The Latest Events in Christian Science 241 

rivalry in Christian Science is abnormal, and will expose and 
explode itself. S. Any attempt at rivalry or superiority in 
Christian Science is unchristian ; therefore it is unscien- 
tific." 1 

Mrs. Stetson and her following in a long and strong com- 
munication to the editor of the Christian Science periodicals 
bitterly resented the imputations of these editorials, but at the 
same time meekly submitted. Her request that this apology 
should be printed was not heeded, not even acknowledged. On 
January 16, 1909, were published a few lines purporting to 
come from Mrs. Eddy which, though retracting nothing, acted 
as a soothing balm on the ruffled feelings of the New Yorkers. 
But this was not to last long. Again Mrs. Stetson offered her 
opponents a welcome occasion for renewed attacks. Continuing 
to be deeply attached to her Leader, she committed the tactical 
error of forwarding to Mrs. Eddy by special messenger as a 
gift a sum of money she herself had received from some stu- 
dents of hers. The gift was seasoned with adulatory messages 
which contain such extravagant phrases as the following: 

"The voice of the Father-Mother God is ever speaking 
through you. . . . You are known to us, our beloved teacher, 
by words which make 'our hearts burn within us,' and we, 
your body, quickly and gratefully respond. . . . We be- 
hold our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, revealed to our 
waking thought as eternal life, and you, our blessed teacher, 
as the manifestation of Truth." 2 

All these messages were forwarded at the same time to Mrs. 
Eddy. Mrs. Eddy accepted the gift and started at once to 
discipline the giver. In her letter of thanks the following pas- 
sage occurs : 

"The Scripture says: 'Watch and pray, that ye enter 
not into temptation.' You are aware that animal magnetism 
is the opposite of divine Science, and that this opponent is 
the means whereby the conflict against truth is engendered 
and developed. Beloved! you need to watch and pray that 

stetson: Vital Issues, pp. 122-128. 
'Ibid., pp. 135-146. 



242 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

the enemy of good cannot separate you from your Leader 
and best earthly friend." x 

This letter was dated July 12, 1909. On July 23, another 
letter, more direct and plain, followed. It reads as follows: 

"My Dear Student — Awake and arise from this temp- 
tation produced by animal magnetism upon yourself, allow- 
ing your students to deify you and me. Treat yourself for 
it and get your students to help you rise out of it. It will 
be your destruction if you do not do this. Answer this letter 
immediately." 2 

On July 31, the Christian Science Sentinel, in a scathing 
editorial entitled None Good but God, published damaging ex- 
tracts of these confidential messages and then continued : 

"This is emphatically not Christian Science, and Chris- 
tian Scientists will note in these quotations phrases for which 
they can find no warrant either in the Scriptures or in any 
of Mrs. Eddy's writings. ... It is time for these students 
and their teacher, and other students and other teachers, if 
there be any in the same belief, to awake from the mesmerism 
of which they are the victims." 3 

About the same time Mrs. Stetson was summoned before the 
Board of Directors, one witness confronting her, but on August 
3, these charges were, apparently, dismissed. 

In reality the Board of Directors prepared to spread a 
dragnet around Mrs. Stetson which should definitely put her 
out of the way. A secret investigation, of which Mrs. Stetson 
was kept in ignorance, was made which on September 25 re- 
sulted in the following "Findings and Orders": (1) That Mrs. 
Stetson taught her students that the branch church of Christ 
of which she was a member was the only legitimate Christian 
Science Church in New York City; (2) that she taught an er- 
roneous sense of Christian Science, particularly in regard to 
the application of Christian Science to human needs and con- 
ditions ; (3) that she endeavored to exercise a control over her 

'Stetson: op. cit., p. 155. 
1 Ibid., p. 159. 
*Ibid., pp. 137, 25. 



The Latest Events in Christian Science 243 

students and (4) to obtrude herself upon their attention; (5) 
that she treated persons without their request or consent, and 
(6) attempted to control and to injure persons by mental 
means; (7) that she had so strayed from the right way as not 
to be fit for the work of a teacher of Christian Science. 

In view of these findings the directors ordered that her card 
be removed from the Christian Science Journal, and that her 
license or authority to teach Christian Science be revoked. 1 
On November 17 her name was dropped from the roll of the 
Mother Church, which automatically deprived her of any po- 
sition of trust in her own church. That, notwithstanding Mrs. 
Stetson's protestations to the contrary, Mrs. Eddy was back 
of these proceedings, is rendered evident by the following letter 
written only four days before Mrs. Stetson's excommunication : 

Brookxine, Mass., 

November 13, 1909. 
To the Board of Trustees, First Church of Christ, 
Scientist, New York City: 
Beloved Brethren: In consideration of the present mo- 
mentous question at issue in First Church of Christ, Scientist, 
New York City, I am constrained to say, if I can settle this 
church difficulty amicably by a few words, as many students 
think I can, I herewith cheerfully subscribe these words of 
love : — 

My beloved brethren in First Church of Christ, Scientist, 
New York City, I advise you with all my soul to support the 
Directors of The Mother Church, and unite with those in 
your church who are supporting The Mother Church Direc- 
tors. Abide in fellowship with and obedience to The Mother 
Church, and in this way God will bless and prosper you. 
This I know, for He has proved it to me for forty years in 
succession. 

Lovingly yours, 

Mary Baker Eddy. 2 

Despite this letter quiet was not fully restored in New 
York. There remained those, openly or secretly in sympathy 
with Mrs. Stetson's principles and practice, who were con- 

1 Stetson: op. cit., pp. 53-55. Cf. Washington Star, March 6, 1921. 

2 Christian Science Sentmel, November 20, 1909. Stetson: op. cit., p. 92. 



244 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

vinced that a gross injustice had been done her. Some of these 
shared her fortunes of their own free choice ; others were forced 
out by the same board that had ousted their teacher. Eight of 
the nine trustees of the Church and sixteen of its practitioners 
were thus weeded out during the course of the following year, 
the last one of Mrs. Eddy's earthly career. These joined Mrs. 
Stetson in a schism which is now known as New York City 
Christian Science Institute with Mrs. Stetson as its Principal. 1 

The last sensational news deserving to be recorded here is 
the rivalry that has of late arisen among the actual heads of 
the Christian Science organization. In order to understand 
these disputes, it is necessary to have an idea of the internal 
organization of Christian Science. Up to January 10, 1910, 
the administration of the Mother Church was in the hands of 
the "First Members" ; but on that day Mrs. Eddy created a 
board of directors consisting of five members who were to tran- 
sact all the business of the Mother Church and, under the direct 
supervision of Mrs. Eddy, were to elect all the officers. In 
1903 the name of the "First Members" was changed to 
"Executive Members" and in 1908 this office was abolished. 2 

Besides the Board of Directors there exists the Christian 
Science Publishing Society, established by Mrs. Eddy on Janu- 
ary 25, 1898. By the deed of trust executed by Mrs. Eddy 
in that year, only the Publishing Society, always with the ap- 
proval of Mrs. Eddy, "selects, approves and publishes the 
books and literature it sends forth." 3 On March 17, 1919, 
the Board of Directors voted to remove from the board of trus- 
tees of the Publishing Society Mr. Rowlands who, they claimed, 
"did not understand or recognize the importance and necessit}' 
of promoting the interests of Christian Science by following 
the directions given by Mrs. Eddy in our church by-laws"; "had 
shown a disposition to invent or adopt interpretations of our 
church laws that pervert their meaning and annul their effect" ; 
"had set up the deed of trust against the by-laws and govern- 

1 The whole disgraceful procedure is given in detail in Mrs. Stetson's 
Vital Issues. The war between the two factions is still being carried on 
through the medium of the daily Press. 

'Church Manual, Art. I, sect. 1-6. 

3 Ibid., Art. XXV, sect. 8. 



The Latest Events in Christian Science 24*5 

ment of the Church and threatened this board with litigation, if 
this board exercised its right to remove any of the trustees." 1 

Mr. Dittemore, one of the directors, strongly disapproved 
of this action, because he considered it "an utterly inadequate 
remedy for the evils arising from the mismanagement and mis- 
conduct of said publishing society trustees . . . insisting that 
said evils imperatively required the removal of all three trustees, 
especially of the dominating trustee, Herbert W. Eustace." 1 
The other directors, it is stated, were well enough satisfied with 
Mr. Dittemore's general aim ; but they disapproved of his meth- 
ods, because they expected that the other trustees of the Pub- 
lishing Society by refusing to submit and to choose a successor 
to Mr. Rowlands would give them a specious pretext for the re- 
moval of them all. 

But things did not take the turn the directors expected. 
The trustees filed a bill in equity to compel the reinstatement 
of Mr. Rowlands and to restrain the directors from interfering 
with the trustees in the discharge of their duties as trustees 
under the trust instrument of January 25, 1898. Mr. Ditte- 
more also, who had been expelled from the board of directors, 
asked the court to declare void the vote removing him and to 
restrain the directors from interfering with his rights and func- 
tions as a director. The hearing began June 3. The bitterness 
which had apparently marked the disputes between the two 
boards crept into the hearing. "Sharp clashes between the op- 
posing counsel, charges and countercharges, made by witnesses 
and lawyers alike, enlivened the proceedings as they dragged 
on through the fierce summer heat." The final decision upheld 
Mr. Dittemore and the Board of Trustees; but this, far from 
settling the controversy, only was the signal for a new crop of 
legal wrangles. To enumerate a few of these — 

1. Mrs. Emilie B. Hulin files a petition asking leave to 
intervene in the suit as a "First Member." 

2. Mr. Edwin A. Krauthoff asks leave to appear inde- 
pendently as opposing Mrs. Hulin's petition. 

3. The trustees of the Publishing Society file a bill of 
complaint against thirteen members of First Church of Christ, 

1 The Washington Herald, May 2, 1920. 



246 Christian Science and tlie Catholic Faith 

Scientist, in Boston, to which later two other persons are 
added, asking the Court to restrain them from doing anything 
to injure the business of the Publishing Society. 

"It is charged in the bill that the defendants have under- 
taken to procure the cancellation of subscriptions by Chris- 
tian Scientists to the periodicals of the Society; have inter- 
fered with the employees to hinder and delay the publication 
of the periodicals ; have sent out false and misleading state- 
ments in reports and information regarding administration 
of the trust by the trustees, and have wrongfully charged 
the plaintiffs with having withheld from The Mother Church 
large sums of money due from the trustees, and also that the 
trustees made false entries in their own books." 

4. The Attorney General for Massachusetts asks leave to 
intervene in the trustees' suit. 

5. The Board of Directors and the treasurer file a bill in 
equity asking the court to remove all the trustees of the Pub- 
lishing Society. 

"The directors charge the trustees with mismanagement 
of the business of the Publishing Society and it is said that 
many members of the Church have canceled their subscrip- 
tions to periodicals issued by the Society because of their 
belief that the trustees are not loyal and consistent Scien- 
tists and are not living up to the doctrines proclaimed by 
Mrs. Eddy." 1 

This bare summary gives an inadequate idea of the condi- 
tions as they exist today in Christian Science. Other suits are 
in contemplation and there is much unrest in the Church body. 
Mr. Gilmore as Publication Committee for New York denies 
"the intimation that there is a strife and schismatic condition 
in every Christian Science branch church." 2 To this Mrs. 
Stetson replies: 

"I leave this remark to the judgment of the public who 
are familiar with the lawsuits, injunctions, counter-injunc- 
tions, and factional strife within the material organization 
which have been reported in the press." s 

1 Cf. The Washington Herald, May 2, 1920. 
'The New York Evening Mail, February 24, 1921. 
• The Washington Star, March 6, 1921. 



The Latest Events in Christian Science 247 

As a result of Judge Dodge's decision in favor of the trus- 
tees more than two hundred employees of all kinds have left the 
publications, and a committee has been appointed to care for 
these "strikers." Mrs. Stetson also has not been silenced. She 
vents her grievances in the newspapers, charges her opponents 
with boycotting her books, removing them from public libraries, 
and in other ways preventing her witnessing to the truth as 
taught by Mrs. Eddy. On October 2, 1921, in a two full-page 
advertisement she brings before the public her difficulties with 
the board of trustees of New York First Church of Christ over 
a fence between her property and that of the Church which 
the Church insists on removing while Mrs. Stetson just as 
strenuously refuses. 1 

If in spite of these many and ever recurring signs of selfish- 
ness Christian Science continues to attract people of intelli- 
gence, we may, perhaps, agree with Dr. Cabot in assigning in 
part for this strange phenomenon the following reasons. 
Says he : 

"It is not difficult to perceive as one studies the testi- 
monies recorded in the Christian Science Journal that many 
patients have been driven into Christian Science by a multi- 
tude of shifting and mistaken diagnoses, by the gross abuse 
of drugs, especially of morphine, and by the total neglect of 
rational psychotherapy on the part of many physicians. . . . 
The success of the Christian Science movement is due largely 
to the ignorance and narrow-mindedness of a certain propor- 
tion of the medical profession. I can see some foundation 
even for such an exaggerated charge as that 'the doctors are 
flooding the world with disease' — a favorite expression of 
Mrs. Eddy's. No one who has seen much of the nervous or 
hysterical affections following railway accidents and of the 
methods not infrequently used, not only by lawyers, but by 
doctors, to make the sufferers believe that they are sicker 
than they really are, can deny that there is some truth in 
Mrs. Eddy's charge. Even in her irrational denunciation of 
hygiene, one cannot help seeing some grain of truth when 
one reads or hears of the multitude of petty prudences and 
'old womanish' superstitions not infrequently exploited by 
1 The Washington Star, October 2, 1921. 



248 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

school teachers, parents, and teachers of physical culture 
under the name of hygiene. Believing, then, as I do, that 
most Christian Science cures are genuine — genuine cures 
of functional disease — the question arises whether the special 
methods of mental healing emplo} T ed by Christian Scientists 
differ from other methods of mental healing. . . . Work- 
cure is, I think, the sanest and most helpful part of Christian 
Science, as of all other types of psychotherapy. The Chris- 
tian Scientists do set idle people to work and turn inverted 
attention outward upon the world. This is a great service — 
the greatest, I think, that can be done to a human being. By 
setting their patients to the work of healing and teaching 
others, Christian Scientists have wisely availed themselves 
of the greatest healing power on earth. I believe that sugges- 
tion, education and work-cure can be used in far safer and 
saner ways by physicians, social workers, and teachers or 
clergymen properly trained for the work than by the Chris- 
tian Scientists." * 

Though Dr. Cabot's statements may be loose in details and 
too general in their indictment of the medical profession and 
of health-crusaders, generally, they afford, nevertheless, food 
for thought inasmuch as they condemn a tendency which in a 
different direction exhibits the same preoccupation and pur- 
sues the same ends as Christian Science and New Thought, 
being prompted by an excessive desire of bodily comfort and 
physical health. A different ideal is presented to us by St. Paul 
who gives to his beloved Timothy the following advice : 

"Avoid foolish and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself 
unto godliness. For bodily exercise is profitable to little; but 
godliness is profitable to all things, having promise of the life 
that now is, and of that which is to come." 2 

1 Cabot, in McClure's Magazine, Vol. XXXI (1908), pp. 475-476, article: 
"One Hundred Christian Science Cures." 
2 1 Tim. 4:7. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

/. Works of, and on, Mrs. Eddy 

Mary Baker Eddy: Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, 
the textbook of Christian Science (1st ed. 1875). Mrs. Eddy 
continually revised this book up to the end of her life. While 
later modifications are of minor importance, those of earlier 
years are most radical. For a comparison of earlier and later 
editions, cf. pp. 46 ff. 

: Science and Health, with German translation on opposite 

page, Boston, 1912; with French translation, Boston, 1917- 

: Christian Healing, Boston, 1880. 

The Science of Man, Boston, 1883. An original draft of 



Science and Health, largely embodying P. P. Quimby's words 
and ideas. 

: The People's Idea of God, Boston, 1886. 

— : No and Yes, Boston, 1891, 1908, 1917. 

: Christ and Christmas, Boston, 1893. "An illustrated poem 

which she afterward temporarily suppressed because the pic- 
tures were very displeasing to a great many people. One 
picture represents Jesus Christ standing beside a big black, 
upholstered coffin, raising to life a frightfully emaciated woman. 
Another represents a woman, strangely like Mrs. Eddy's author- 
ized photographs in appearance, standing at a bedside and 
raising a prostrate form, while a great star burns above her 
head. In another, Christ is represented as hand in hand with a 
woman who bears a tablet inscribed 'Christian Science.' Mrs. 
Eddy wrote the text of this grim gift-book, and a fly-leaf ac- 
credits the pictures to 'Mary Baker G. Eddy and James F. 
Gilman, artists' " (McClure's Magazine, 1907, p. 702). The 
book has since been put again on the market. 

: Pulpit and Press, Boston, 1895. 

: Church Manual of the First Church of Christ, Scientist, in 

Boston, Mass. Boston, 1895. Like Science and Health, the 
Church Manual has undergone a series of important revisions. 
In its present form it contains Mrs. Eddy's Church legislation 
extending over a period of many years. The earlier editions 
(1895-1899) contain a full list of all the members of the Chris- 
tian Science Church. 

: Miscellaneous Writings, 1883-1896, Boston, 1896. An im- 
portant collection of documents containing questions and an- 
249 



250 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

swers, addresses, letters, sermons, instructions, a few historical 
notes (idealized) and poems. 

Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Science vs. Pantheism, Boston, 1900. 

: Messages to the Mother Church, 1901, 1902, 1903. 

: Unity of Good, Boston, 1888. 

: Rudimental Divine Science, Boston, 1887-1909- 

: Retrospection and Introspection, Boston, 1899- An auto- 
biography in winch Mrs. Eddy idealizes all the most trivial and 
even disgraceful events in her life. Cf. Milmine's Life. 

The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, Bos- 



ton, 1914. A posthumous collection of letters, etc. 

Concordance to Science and Health, Boston, 1903, 1908, 1916. Ar- 
ranged on the plan of the ordinary concordances to the Bible. 
Very complete and up-to-date. 

Concordance to Mrs Eddy's Published Writings, other than Science 
and Health. Boston, 1915. Same remarks as above. The com- 
piler is Albert Francis Conant. 

Schon, Marie: Vergleichs-Arbeit iiber die Gesa.mt-Ausgaben 
{1875-1912) von Wissenschaft und Gesundheit mit Schliissel 
sur hi. Schrift von Mary Baker G. Eddy, Berlin, 1914. The 
author would like to have the 1891 edition of Science and 
Health looked upon as the standard. Requests also that a new 
German translation be authorized to be published without the 
parallel English text. 

Milmine, Georgine: The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy, and the 
History of Christian Science, first published as a serial in 
McClure's Magazine, 1907-1908, revised and published in 
book form, New York, 1909- The most reliable life of Mrs. 
Eddy; contains many original documents. Unfortunately out 
of print. 

Wilbur, Sibyl: The Life of Mary Baker Eddy. New York, 1908; 
Boston, 1913. Idealized throughout. Aims at palliating the 
many disagreeable facts brought to light in Miss Milmine's 
Life. 

Peabody, Frederick W. : The Religio-Medical Masquerade. New 
York, 1910, 1915. A complete exposure of Christian Science. 
"There is absolutely no middle ground. Either Mr. Peabody is 
the most shameless of calumniators or Mrs. Eddy is the basest 
of charlatans. Mr. Peabody expresses an eager readiness to 
have this question submitted to any test. His charges run the 
whole gamut from attempted murder to accomplished theft, 
with endless lying scattered all along in between. They are 
not vague, but definite, and every one of them can be settled as 
true or untrue. Why do the Eddyites wait? The courts are 






Bibliography 251 

open and until Mr. Peabody is a convicted slanderer, no sane 
or decent person, man or woman, can afford to give countenance 
to Christian Science" (The New York Times'). Mr. Peabody 
was counsel against Mrs. Eddy in many of her lawsuits. 

Dresser, Julius A.: True History of Mental Science, Boston, 1887. 

Dresser, Horatio W.: A History of the New Thought Movement, 
New York, 1919- While chiefly dealing with the New Thought 
Movement, this history necessarily touches on the beginnings of 
Christian Science. 

Powell, Lyman: Christian Science, the Faith and the Founder, 
New York, 1917. 

Podmore, Frank: Mesmerism and Christian Science, a Short His- 
tory of Mental Healing, Philadelphia, 1909- 

Periodicals 

The Christian Science Journal, established 1883 by Mrs. Eddy. A 
monthly magazine, the official organ of Christian Science. 

The Christian Science Quarterly, published January, April, July, 
October; founded by Mrs. Eddy in 1890. Contains the Lesson- 
Sermons for the Sunday services throughout the world. Pub- 
lished in English (regular and vest-pocket edition), English- 
Dutch and English-German. 

The Christian Science Sentinel, established in 1898 by Mrs. Eddy. 
A weekly periodical. 

The Christian Science Monitor, an international daily newspaper 
(except Sundays), founded by Mrs. Eddy in 1908. 

Der Herold der Christian Science, a monthly magazine in German 
and English, authorized by Mrs. Eddy in 1903. 

Le Heraut de Christian Science, a monthly periodical in French and 
English, established in 1918. 

These periodicals are authorized by the Christian Science Pub- 
lishing Society. Other reviews that flourished for a time or are not 
officially approved by the Christian Science Publishing Society are: 
The Boston Christian Scientist, 1889-1890. 
The Chicago Christian Scientist, 1887-1890. 
Harmony, San Francisco, 1897-1906. 

Unity, a monthly magazine issued by the Unity School of Christian- 
ity, Kansas City, Mo., 1891, etc. 

IT". Other Works on the History of Christian Science and New 
Thought 

Armstrong, Joseph: The Mother Church, Boston, 1897. Deals 
with the erection of the church edifice in Boston. 



252 Christian Science and tlie Catholic Faith 

Christian Science and the Practice of Medicine, Milwaukee, 1900. 
Report of the trial of Crescentia Arries and Emma Nichols 
charged with practicing medicine without a license — the first 
unqualified conviction of Christian Scientists. 

Editorial Comments on the life and work of Mary Baker Eddy, 
collected and arranged by the Christian Science Publishing 
Society, Boston, 191 1. 

Farlow, Alfred: The Relation of Government to the Practice of 
Christian Science, reprint from the government magazine, Bos- 
ton, 1907- Favorable to Christian Science. 

Farnsworth, Edward C: The Passing of Mary Baker Eddy, Port- 
land, Maine, 1911. 

Hayes, Harold Vincent: The Lady in White and Her Marvellous 
Mission, New York, 1921. 446 pp. "To support the discoverer 
and founder of said Science (Christian Science), Mary Baker 
Eddy, Pastor, Poet, Author, who was and is in her real selfhood 
the Elect Lady of the Gospel, forever robed in white — I have 
penned and published this book" (Preface p. xi). 

Huse, Sibyl Marvin: Christ's Offspring or Spiritual Generation, 
New York, 1921. "To the materialist Mary Baker Eddy seemed 
to die; but there was one faithful watcher (Mrs. Stetson) on 
the highest mountain peak of faith and understanding who dis- 
cerned, low on the horizon, the dawning light of the coming 
radiance of the fulness of the Godhead bodily, even Christ, the 
compound idea of Life and Love who should rise to the zenith 
of demonstration. . . . The clarion call rang out: 'Mary Baker 
Eddy lives,' Watch for the revealing of the ideal man, the 
Christ of God. In this second coming she is conqueror of the 
female belief of material conception, as in the first coming he 
(Jesus) overcame the lie of material begetting; thus completing 
the victory over the dragon of belief in material generation — 
Adam's sensuous dream of an Eve, his own lustful self, as the 
mother of all living!" (Ibid., pp. 16-17). The last words are 
a quotation from an article of Mrs. Stetson's in the Indepen- 
dent, January 26, 1911. 

Kratzer, Glenn A.: The Christian Science Church, Chicago, 1914, 
1920. A friendly review of its administration and a plea for 
liberty in Christian Science. "The writer not only believes ab- 
solutely in Christian Science as taught in the Bible and by Mrs. 
Eddy, but he is wholly friendly to the Christian Science organi- 
zation. He desires to do what he can to help the organization 
shake off some of the swaddling clothes which it has outgrown, 
in order that its members may the more largely enter into 'the 
glorious liberty of the children of God' " (Ibid., p. 49). 

Lord, Myra B.: Mary Baker Eddy — A concise story of her life and 
work; Boston, 1918. Favorable to Christian Science. 



Bibliography 253 

Meehan, Michael: Mrs. Eddy and the Late Suit in Equity. 
Authorized edition, Concord, N. EL, 1908. Deals with the suit 
of her son and others as next friends to have a receiver of her 
property appointed. "This lawsuit disclosed one interesting 
fact, namely, that while in 1893 securities of Mrs. Eddy 
amounting to $100,000 were brought to Concord, and in Janu- 
ary, 1899, she had $236,200, and while in 1907 she had about 
a million dollars' worth of taxable property, Mrs. Eddy in 
1901 returned a signed statement to the assessors at Concord 
that the value of her taxable property amounted to about 
$19^000 dollars. This statement was sworn to year after year 
by Mr. Frye" (Milmine, in McClure's Magazine, 1908, p. 24). 
The suit was withdrawn. 

Stetson, Augusta E. : Reminiscences, Sermons, and Correspondence, 
New York, 1913. Proving adherence to the principle of Chris- 
tian Science, as taught by Mary Baker Eddy. 1200 pages. 

: Vital Issues in Christian Science, New York, 1917. A 

record of unsettled questions which arose in the year 1909 be- 
tween the directors of The Mother Church and First Church 
of Christ, Scientist, New York, with facsimiles and excerpts 
and letters of Mary Baker Eddy. 

Correspondence, Essays and Poems of Interest to the mem- 



bers of the Choral Society of the New York City Christian 
Science Institute. New York, 1918. 

New York City Christian Science Institute: A Tribute of Love and 
Gratitude to Our Faithful Teacher Augusta E. Stetson, New 
York, 1921. 

Woodbury, Josephine Curtis: War in Heaven, Boston, 1897. Six- 
teen years' experience in Christian Science Mind-healing. 

: Christian Science Voices, Boston, 1885. 

III. Works on the Whole Favoring Christian Science or New 
Thought or Modern Mind-Healing 

I 

Baum, Mrs. C. L. : Studies in Divine Science, Colorado College of 
Divine Science, Denver, Colo., 1909. 

Beecher, Margaret: Some Truths and Wisdom of Christian 
Science, New York, 1904. 

Bryant: Christian Science Teacher and Healer, Chicago, 1891. 

Casey, Robert: God and Good are One — a lecture on Christian 
Science, 1890. 

Chapman, G. F. : Christ, the Healer — a series of letters, Boston, 
1888. 

Cramer, Malinda E.: Lessons in Science and Health, San Fran- 
cisco, 1890. 



254 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

Cramer, Malinda E.: Basic Statement and Health Treatment of 

Truth. 

: Manuscript Lessons. 

: Genesis Lessons. 

: Divine Science and Healing, San Francisco, 1905. 

Day, George B.: Christian Science Sermons, Chicago, 1889. The 

new interpretation or the Scriptures viewed in the light of 

Christian Science. 
Dearmer, Percy: Body and Soul, London, 1909- An inquiry into 

the effects of religion upon Health. 
De Waters, Lillian: Thinking Heavenward, 1908. 
Journeying Onward, 1908. 
The Hidden Truth, 1919- 
The Perfect Vision, 1920. 
Lifting the Veil, Stamford, Conn., 1921. 
Flory, Jacok Stoner: Mind Mysteries, Mount Morris, 111., 1897. 
Flower, B. O. : Christian Science as a religious belief and a thera- 
peutic agent, Boston, 1909- 
Gestefeld, Mrs. Ursula: Which shall it be, Mind or Medicine? 

(Pamphlet, 1886.) 

: A Statement of Christian Science, Chicago, 1888. 

: Jesuitism in Christian Science. A pamphlet against Mrs. 

Eddy. 
: The Breath of Life, Chicago, 1897. 

— : The Builder and the Plan, 1901. 

The Science of Christ, Chicago, 1889. An advanced state- 



ment of Christian Science. 
Greenbaum, Leon: Follow Christ, St. Louis, Mo., 1916. 
Harley, Fanny M.: Simplified Lessons in the Science of Being, 

Chicago, 1899- 
Harris, Walter: Christian Science and the Ordinary Man, New 

York, 1917. 
Hasbrouck, Stephen: Altar Fires Relighted, New York, 1911. A 

study of modern religious tendencies from the standpoint of the 

lay observer. 
Hegeman, J. Winthrop: Must Protestantism adopt Christian 

Science? New York, 1913. 
Hughes, Nina B.: Twelve Simple Lessons in Christian Science, 

1888. 

: Truth for Youth, Chicago, 1888. 

Kimball, Edward A.: Lectures and Articles on Christian Science, 

Chesterton, Indiana, 1921. 486 pages. 
Kohaus, Hannah More: Between the Lines — a condensed state- 
ment of the Truth of Being, Chicago, 1897- 
Kratzer, Rev. Glenn A.: Dominion Within, Chicago, 1913. 

: Spiritual Man, 1914. 

: What is Truth? c. 1914. 



Bibliography 255 

Kratzer, Rev. Glenn A.: Revelation Interpreted. 400 pages, c. 

1915. 
: The End of the Age, an address delivered at Oregon, 111., 

June 3, 1917; Chicago: Central Christian Science Institute, 

1917. 

The Christian Science Church. Cf. p. 5. 



Kratzer, Elizabeth Cary: Complete in Him. 

: Individual Completeness or the Trinity of Mind. 235 pages. 

Krebs, Ebba Victoria : Thoughts as They Have Come to Me, Phila- 
delphia, 1916. 

Lord, Frances: Christian Science Healing — Its Principles and 
Practice, Chicago, 1888. 471 pages and index. 

MacCameline, Craig (pseudonym for Ballentine Frank) : Science 
and Scripture Health, Detroit, Mich., 1920. 551 pages. 

McMillan, Liston: Alathiasis, or Principles of Christian Hygiene, 
designed as a study of Scriptural healing and involving a 
medico-legal view of Christianity, Oskaloosa, Iowa, 1895. 648 
pages and index. 

Mars, Gerhardt Cornell: The Interpretation of Life, New York, 
1908. 

Militz, Annie Rix: Primary Lessons in Christian Living and 
Healing, New York, 1904. 

Newton, Richard Heber: Christian Science, the Truth of Christian 
Healing and their contribution to the growth of orthodoxy, 
New York, 1898. 

Robinson, Charles: Comparative and Rational Christian Science, 
Chicago, 19II. 

Sabin, Oliver C. : Christian Science, What It Is and What It Does, 
Washington, D. C, 1899- 64 pages. 

: Christian Science Made Plain, 1905. 

: Divine Healing. 

: Christian Science Instructor. 

: Christian Science Healing. 

: Christology, Science of Health and Happiness, Washing- 
ton, D. C, 1901 ; 23d ed., 1910. 

Seward, Theodore F.: How to Get Acquainted with God, New 
York, 1902. 

Shaner, John Junius: The Character Builder of Scientific Chris- 
tianity, San Jose, Calif., 1913. 

Starcross, Roger (pseudonym for Chas. H. Pope) : Christian 
Science Theory and Practice, Boston, 1908. 

Thiesing, Winfried W. : Nineteen Hundred Years, or the power of 
Christ, Covington, Ky., 1898. 

Works, U. S. Senator J. D.: A well-documented plea in favor of 
Christian Science, in Congressional Record, Vol. LII, Part I, 
pp. 1021-1055, 1915. 



256 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

II 

Arens, E. J.: Old Theology in its Application to the Healing of the 

Sick, Boston, 1886. 
Atkinson, William Walker: Mind-Power, the secret of mental 

magic, Chicago, 1910. 
Batten, Loring W.: The Relief of Pain by Mental Suggestion— 

a study of the moral and religious forces in healing, New York, 

Brown, Grace M. : Mental Harmony. 

: Think Right for Health and Success, New York 1916 

Dresser, Horatio W.: The Power of Silence, an interpretation of 
Life in its relation to Health and Happiness, New York, 1 902. 

: Methods and Problems of Spiritual Healing. 

: The Perfect Whole. 

: Voices of Hope. 

: In Search of a Soul. 

: Voices of Freedom. 

: Living by the Spirit. 

: Man and the Divine Order. 

: Health and the Inner Life, an analytical and historical 
study of spiritual healing theories with an account of the life 
and teachings of P. P. Quimby, New York, 1906. 

: The Philosophy of the Spirit. 

: Handbook of the New Thought, New York, 1917. 

• A History of the New Thought Movement, New York, 



1919. 

Dresser, Horatio W. (editor) : The Spirit of the New Thought- 
essays and addresses by representative authors and leaders, 
New York, 1917. 

: The Quimby Manuscripts, New York, 1921. 

Evans, W. F. : The Primitive Mind-Cure— the nature and power of 
faith, or elementary lessons in Christian philosophy and trans- 
cendental medicine, Boston, 1884. 

: The Divine Law of Cure, Boston, 1881. 

: Mental Medicine — a theoretical and practical treatise on 

medical psychology. 

: Soul and Body, or the spiritual science of health and 

disease, Boston, 1876. 

Fillmore, Charles: The Science of Being and Christian Healing, 
12 lessons, Kansas City, Mo., 1912 (3d ed.). 

Fletcher, Horace: Menticulture, or the A B C of True Living 
Chicago, 1897. 

: Happiness as Found in Forethought Minus Fearthought, 

Chicago, 1897. 

: Optimism, a real remedy, Chicago, 1908. 



Bibliography 257 

Hudson, Thomson Jay : The Law of Psychic Phenomena, Chicago, 
1893. 

: The Law of Mental Medicine, Chicago, 1903. 

: The Evolution of the Soul and Other Essays, Chicago, 

1904. 

James, Fannie B. : Truth and Health, science of the perfect Mind 
and the law of its demonstration. The textbook of the Colorado 
College of Divine Science, Denver, Colo., 1905 (3d ed.). 

Mills, Anna W. : Practical Metaphysics for Healing and Self- 
Culture, Chicago, 1896. 

Patterson, Charles Brodie: The Will to be Well, New York, 1901, 
1906. 

Sadler, William S., M.D. : The Physiology of Faith and Fear, or 
The Mind in Health and Disease, Chicago, 1912. 

Simpson, A. B.: The Gospel of Healing, London, 1915. 

Towne, Elizabeth: The Life Power and How to Use It, Holyoke, 
Mass., 1906. 

Whipple, Leander Edmund: Healing Influences, New York, 1913. 

Wood, Henry: Ideal Suggestion through Mental Photography, pre- 
ceded by a study of mental healing, Boston, 1893. 

: The New Old Healing, Boston, 1908. 

: Life More Abundant — Scriptural truth in modern applica- 
tion, Boston, 1905. 

Womer, Parley Paul: The Relation of Healing to Law, Chicago, 
1909. 

Worcester-McComb-Coriat: Religion and Medicine — The moral 
control of nervous disorders (Emmanuel Movement), New 
York, 1908. 

Worcester-McComb : The Christian Religion as a Healing Power, 
New York, 1909- 

Wright, Howard F.: Spiritual Health, New York, 1913. 

Yarnall, Jane W. : Practical Healing for Mind and Body, Chicago, 
1899- 

IV. Works Hostile to Christian Science and New Thought. 

Appler, Augustus C: Christian Science Exposed, St. Louis, Mo., 

1908. 
Armstrong, R. C. : Christian Science Exposed, Nashville, Tenn., 

1910. 
Barrington, Arthur H. : Anti-Christian Cults, Milwaukee, 1898. 
Bates, J. H. : Christian Science and Its Problems, New York, 1898. 
Bell, Alvin E.: The Word of a Woman vs. the Word of God — a 

lecture on Eddyism, Burlington, Iowa, 1917- 
Benson, Margaret: A Review of Christian Science. 



258 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

Brown, J. Elward: Christian Science, True or False, Which? 
Siloam Springs, Ark., 1918. 

Brown, William Leon: Christian Science, falsely so-called, New 
York, 1911. 

Buckley, James Monroe: Christian Science and Other Supersti- 
tions, New York, 1899. 

: Faith-Healing, Christian Science and Kindred Phenomena, 

New York, 1892. 

: "The Absurd Paradox of Christian Science" in North 



American Review, July, 1901. 
Burrell, Joseph Dunn : A New Appraisal of Christian Science, 

New York, 1906. 
Carter, Ada: The Seamless Robe, New York, 1909- 
Clark, Gordon: The Church of St. Bunco, a drastic treatment of a 

copyrighted religion. Unchristian Nonsense, New York, 1901. 
Combs, Geo. Hamilton: Some Latterday Religions, New York, 

1899- 
Cooksey, Rev. N. B.: Christian Science under the Searchlight, 

Nashville, Tenn., 1915. 
Coppage, L. J. : Christian Science in the Light of Reason, Cincinnati, 

1914. 
Cushman, H. Ernest: The Truth in Christian Science, a lecture, 

Boston, 1902. 
Evans, William: Why I am not a Christian Scientist (pamphlet), 

Chicago, 1913. 
Farnsworth, Edward C: The Sophistries of Christian Science, 

Portland, Maine, 1909- 
Garrison, Arthur O. : Christian Science dissected by A. D. Sector, 

St. Louis, Mo., 1900. 
Gifford, Miram W. : Christian Science against Itself, Cincinnati, 

Ohio, 1902. 
Gray, James M.: The Antidote to Christian Science, New York, 

1907. 
Gilbert, Mrs. Viola: Christian Science Uncovered — Its black art 

exposed, New York, 1900. 
Haldeman, I. M. : Christian Science in the Light of the Scriptures, 

New York, 1909. 440 pp. 
Harker, Ray Clarkson: Christian Science, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1908. 
Harlen, Christian M. : Christian Science against both Science and 

the Bible, Dallas, Texas, 1899. 
Hart, H. Martyn: A Way that Seemeth Right, New York, 1897. 
Hall, Isaac: A Christian Scientist Who Never Made a Demonstra- 
tion, New York, 1907. 
Harwood, Anne: An English View of Christian Science, New York, 

1899- 



Bibliography 259 

Haudenschield, Charles R.: Do the Bible and Christian Science 

Agree? Los Angeles, Calif., 1917. 
Lasswell, William P.: Orthodoxy vs. Christian Science or Anti- 
Christ in 1900, Hey worth, 111., 1900. 
McCaskill, Charles Wallace: Fundamental Religious Teachings 

of Christian Science, University Place, Nebraska, 1916. 
McCorkle, William P.: Christian Science, or the false Christ of 

1866, Richmond, Va., 1899- 
McClure, Edmund: Christian Science in Modern Substitutes for 

Traditional Christianity, London, 1913. 
Mark Twain: Christian Science, New York, 1899; 1907. 
Marsten, Francis Edward: The Mask of Christian Science, New 

York, 1909. 
Murray, Sara Vanden: Flesh and Matter — The Scriptures vs. 

Christian Science, New York, 1910. 
Olston, Albert B.: The Facts and Fables of Christian Science, 

Chicago, 1912. 399 pp. 
Oughton, Charles M.: Crazes, Credulities and Christian Science, 

Chicago, 1901. 
Paget, Stephen: The Faith and Works of Christian Science, New 

York, 1909. 232 pp. 
Pease, Charles Giffin: Expose of Christian Science Methods and 

Teaching, New York, 1905. 
Prince, Leon C. : The Sense and Nonsense of Christian Science, 

Boston, 1911. 
Purrington, Wm. A.: Christian Science — an exposition of Mrs. 

Eddy's wonderful discovery, including its legal aspects. A 

plea for children and other helpless sick, New York, 1900. 
Reed, Dr. Eleanor M.: Christian Science and Contrasting Chris- 
tian Truth in Pan- Anglican Congress Report, London, 1908. 
Sandt, George W. : A Brief Study of Christian Science, New York, 

1902. 
Sheldon, Henry C. : Christian Science So-called, New York, 1913. 
Short, William: Christian Science, What It Is. What is new and 

what is true about it. New York, 1899- 
Snowden, James H. : The Truth about Christian Science, Philadel- 
phia, 1920. 313 pp. and index. 
Stafford, Thomas P.: The Origin of Christian Science. A key to 

the writings of M. B. G. Eddy, Kansas City, 1912. 
Stephens, Percy W. : Christian Science, its Pedigree, Principle and 

Posterity, Chicago, 1917. 
Sturge, M. Carta: The Truth and Error of Christian Science, 

London, 1903. 
Swain, Richard La Rue: The Real Key to Christian Science, a 

surprising discovery, New York, 1917. 



260 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

Symposium: Searchlights on Christian Science, Revell Co., Chicago, 
1898. 

Townsend, L. T. : Faith-Work, Christian Science and Other Cures, 
Boston, 1885. 

Underhill, Andrew F. : Valid Objections to so-called Christian 
Science, New York, 1902. 

Varley, Henry: Christian Science examined, New York, 1898. 

Watson, W. H. : Juggernaut — Christian Science exposed, Daven- 
port, Iowa, 1905. 

Whitehead, John: The Illusions of Christian Science — its philoso- 
phy rationally examined, Boston, 1907. 

Wilson, John M.: Christian Science Falsely So-called, Louisville, 
Ky., 1900. 

Wimbigler, Charles F. : Christian Science and Kindred Supersti- 
tions, New York, 1901. 

Wood, J. G. : Fallacies of Christian Science, Topeka, Kans., 1908. 



V. Magazine Articles. 

American Journal of Theology, Vol. XIV, October, 1910, pp. 533- 

551 — I. King: "Religious Significance of the Psychotherapeutic 

Movement." 
Canadian Magazine, Vol. XXXIV, April, 1910, pp. 521-527— J. S. 

MacLean: "Miracles and Mind Cures." 
American Journal of Insanity, January, 1910— Woodbridge Riley: 

"Mental Healing in America." 
America, May 14, 1921. See Catholic publications. 
Catholic Mind. See Catholic publications. 
Catholic World. See Catholic publications. 
Contemporary Review, Vol. XCVIII, November, 1910 — Podmore: 

"Mesmerism and Christian Science, a Short History of Mental 

Healing." 
Current Literature, Vol. XLVIII, January, 1910, pp. 68-71 — "Real 

Issues in the Christian Science Controversy." 
, Vol. LI I, January, 1912, pp. 73-74 — "Mrs. Stetson on the 

Immortality of Mrs. Eddy." 
, Vol. XLIX, November, 1910 — "Psychological Expert's 

Reason for Pronouncing Mrs. Eddy Paranoiac." 
Current Opinion, Vol. LV, August, 1913 — "Mrs. Stetson's New As- 
sertion of Spiritual Leadership." 
, Vol. LVII, July, 1914 — "Spiritual Healing. Report of 

a clerical and medical committee." 
, Vol. LXVI, June, 1919 — "Integrity of Christian Science 

movement threatened." 



Bibliography 261 

Current Opinion, Vol. LXVIII, May, 1920, pp. 667-668— "Civil 
War within the Christian Science Community." 

, Vol. LXVIII, March, 1920— "Physician's Impeachment of 

Christian Science Cures." 

Dublin Review. See Catholic publications. 

Hibbert Journal, Vol. VIII, October, 1909, pp. 10-27— S. McComb: 
"Christian Religion as a Healing Power." 

Independent, Vol. LXXV, July 10, 191 3, p. 74— "Projected 
Schism." 

, Vol. LXX, January 26, 1911 — Mrs. Stetson: "Demonstra- 
tion of Mrs. Eddy." 

, Vol. LXXV, September 11, 1913, p. 624-628— J. J. 

Walsh: "Psychotherapy as Practiced in All Ages." 

Vol. LXXVI, October 9, 1913, pp. 81-85— "Mrs. Eddy and 



Mrs. Stetson. 
Literary Digest, Vol. XLIV, June 29, 1912 — "Christian Science and 

the Jew." 
, Vol. XLIV, May 4, 1912 — "Judaism against Christian 

Science." 
, Vol. XLV, September 28, 1912 — "Church Ruled by Com- 
mission." 

, Vol. XLVII, July 12, 1913 — "Mrs. Stetson's Challenge." 

McClure's Magazine, Vol. XXVIII and XXIX— Milmine, Georgine: 

"Mary Baker G. Eddy— the story of her life and the history 

of Christian Science." 
, Vol. XXXIX, 1912, pp. 481-494— B. J. Hendrick: 

"Christian Science since Mrs. Eddy." 
Nation, Vol. XC, February 10, 1910, p. 138 — "Origins of Christian 

Science." 
, Vol. XC, May 19, 1910, p. 503 — "Malicious Animal Mag- 
netism." 
New England Magazine, Vol. XLI, November, 1909, p. 311 — W. D. 

Quint: "Growth of Christian Science." 
, Vol. XLI, December, 1909, p. 420 — A. Farlow: "Mary 

Baker Eddy and Her Work." 
, Vol. LI, April, 1914, p. 56— C. A. Woodard: "Recent 

Growth of Christian Science in New England." 
North American Review, Vol. CXCVIII, December, 1913, p. 823 — 

Hegeman: "Must Protestantism adopt Christian Science." 
, Vol. CC, July, 1914, p. 122 — Hegeman: "Must the Church 

adopt Christian Science Healing?" 
-, Vol. CC, July, 1914, p. 137— R. H. McKim: "What Chris- 



tian Science Really Teaches." 
Outlook, Vol. CVII, July 25, 1914, p. 692— L. Abbott: "Why I Am 
Not A Christian Scientist." 



262 Christian Science and the Catholic Faith 

Outlook, Vol. CVII, August 8, 1914, p. 73 — "Christian Science 
Again." Ibid., p. 835 — "Does a Christian Science healer 
practice Medicine?" 

, Vol. CVIII, p. 73 — "Christian Science Again." 

Quarterly Review, Vol. CCXVIII, January, 1913, pp. 118-147 — T. 
S. Clouston: "Mind-cures from a scientific point of view." 

VI. Catholic Publications on Christian Science and Allied Subjects. 

Benson, Robert Hugh: "Christian Science," in A Book of Essays, 

L. C. T. S. or Herder* St. Louis, Mo., 1916. 
Buotich, Cyril O. F. M. : Christian Science — An apostasy from 

Science and Christianity, San Francisco, 1916. Lectures, 128 pp. 
Campbell, T. J., S. J.: "The Delusion of Catholic Science," in 

Catholic Mind, December 15, 1906. 
Coakley, Thos. F.: Christian Science and the Catholic Church, 

Pittsburgh Catholic Truth Society, pamphlet, 1912. 
Beattie, Francis: A series of articles on Christian Science, based 

on Milmine's Life of Mrs. Eddy, in America, July 5 to August 

16, 1919. 
Hart, Dr. T. P.: "Christian Science and Faith Cure," in Summer 

School Essays, Vol. I, Chicago, 1896. 
Krull, C. P. P. S.: A Common Sense View of Christian Science, 

Collegeville, Ind., 1908. 
Lambert, L. A.: Christian Science before the Bar of Reason in 

New York's Freeman's Journal, August, 1901-February, 1902; 

edited and republished by the Rev. A. S. Quinlan, N. Y. 

Christian Press Association, 1908. 212 pp. 
Meagher, James Luke: The Protestant Churches, New York, 1914. 

pp. 614-646. 
Ricards, J. D.: Aletheia, or the Outspoken Truth, New York, 1885. 
Sasia, Jos. S.: Criticism of Christian Science, in Christian Apolo- 
getics, Vol. I, San Jose, 1903. 
Searle, George M. : The Truth about Christian Science, New York, 

1916. 
Steuart, R. H. J., S. J.: Faith Healing in the Gospels, L. C. T. S. 
Thurston, H. S. J.: "Christian Science," in Lectures on the History 

of Religions, L. C. T. S., 1911. 
Walsh, James J. : "Psychotherapy," in Catholic World, New York, 

February 8, 1909- 
: "Problems of Mental and Spiritual Healing," in Dublin 

Review, October, 1916, p. 301; in Living Age, December 23, 

1916, p. 731 ; in Overland Magazine, April, 1917, p. 306. 

: "Psychotherapy," in Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. XII. 

: Health through Will Power, Boston, 1919. 

Religion and Health, Boston, 1920. 



Woods, Henry, S. J.: "Christian Science," in Catholic Mind, May 
22, 1918. 



INDEX 



Acad6mie des Sciences, 14 

^Egae, temple at, 4 

iEsculapius, the god of the healing 

art, 4 
Albertus Magnus and magic, 7 fn 
Antinomianism ; Christian Science, 

194 
not openly antinomian, 195 
danger of, 196 
Apollonius of Tyana, 4 
Arens and the witchcraft trial, 100 
Assyria, mental healing in Assyria, 

1 
Atmosphere, created by false be- 
liefs, 78 
Atonement, how explained, 177 
Augustine, St., on magical practices, 

6 
Autopsy, condemned by Mrs. Eddy, 

107 
Auto-suggestion, physical effects of, 

159 f 
Avicenna, on the powers of the 

human soul, 7, 8 

Babylonia, mental healing in, 1 
Bacon, Roger, and magic, 7 
Baptism, rejected, 178 
Belief, meaning of, chap. V., 74, 
134, 154 
differs from faith and under- 
standing, 84 
all beliefs are false, 74 f 
are the source of sickness, 133, 136 
to destroy the belief is to destroy 

the disease, 154, 197 
various erroneous beliefs, 74 
a mother's belief is her child's sick- 
ness, 79 
see: evil, malicious animal mag- 
netism, mind (mortal) 
Benedict XIV, on the imagination, 

166 
Benson, R. H., on Christian Science, 

33 
Bernheim, on mental healing, 166 f 
Bertrand, on mesmerism, 14 
Biederwolf, on Christian Science, 
194 



Board of Directors, 244 
Boston, New Thought in, 29 

Mrs. Eddy returns to, 238 
Braid, on hypnotism and sugges- 
tion, 15 
Brown, Lucretia, 100 
Buckley, on mind healers, 82 f 
Burkmar and Quimby, 16 
Burton, Dr., cure of, 115 f 

Cabot, Dr., on organic diseases, 
126 
on success of Christian Science, 
247 
Celsus, on Christian miracles, 5 
Charcot, on hypnotic influences, 31 
Chicago, Christian Science in, 29 
Mrs. Eddy, appearance in, 19 
Children's diseases, mental treat- 
ment of, 79, 113 f 
caused by parents' beliefs, 79 
Christ, as distinct from Jesus, 208 
His healing powers, 213, 229 f 
His cures are supernatural, 208, 
211 f, 220 f 
see: miracles 
Christ and Christmas, a poem, 37, 

249 
Christianity, opposed to magic, 5, 6 
Christian Science, name of, 62 
beginnings of, 26 f 
date and discovery of, 36, 40, 

41 
natural origin of, chap. Ill, 35 
supernatural claims of, 153 f 
doctrinal basis of, 172 f, 175 
vs. Gnosticism, Manichaeism, Do- 

cetism, 175 
inconsistency of, 124 f, 127 
numerical and social progress of, 
23 f 
see: Eddy (Mrs.) mental heal- 
ing, New Thought 
Christian Science Church, founding 

of, 19 
Christian Science Church services, 

21, 54, 189 
Christian Science cures, examples of, 
110 f 



264 



Index 



Christian Science philosophy, chap. 

IV, 60 
Christian Science publications, 37, 

249 f 
Christian Science Publishing Society, 

244 f 
Church Manual, 54 f 

forbids taking of a census, 23 
on announcing author's name, 54 
on ordaining Science and Health, 

54 
on duties of Readers, 55 
on forbidding written formulas, 

56 
against hypnotism and mental 

malpractice, 98 
on consulting M.D.'s, 124 
Cleveland, New Thought in, 30 
Colorado College of Divine Sci- 
ence, 29, 141 
Collyer, lectures on mesmerism, 16 
Commercialism in Christian Science, 
25, 55 f 
in New Thought, 138 
Communion services, 178 fn 
Conception, immaculate, v. genera- 
tion 
Confession and health, 134 
Conscience, stifling of, 205 
Crafts, Mr. and Mrs. Eddy, 43 f 
Cramer, Mrs., on silent treatment, 

137 
Creed, absence of, 173, 175, 180 

Davies, on Christ's miracles, 227, 

229 f 
Davis, Andrew Jackson, 40 
Delrio, on the imagination, 165 

on superstition, 8 
Denver, Christian Science in, 29 
Deslon and mesmerism, 13 
Diagnosis of diseases, condemned, 

124 
Disease, origin of, 78, 19 

organic vs. functional diseases, 

121 f 
infectious diseases refused, 124 
not essentially evil, 193 f 
Dissensions in Christian Science, 239 
Distant treatment, 138 
Docetism vs. Christian Science, 

175 f 
Dresser, Julius A., a disciple of 

Quimby's, 26 
Dresser, Horatio AV., on the begin- 
nings of New Thought, 27 
on silent healing, 137 



Drug habit cured, 115 
Drunkenness cured, 162 
Dubois and mental healing, 31 
Dubray, on the imagination, 165 
Dunmore, earl of, 24 

Eddy, Asa Gilbert, husband of Mrs. 
Eddy, 18 
the murder trial, 101 fn 
his dread of malicious animal 

magnetism, 106 
death of, 107 
Eddy, Mrs. Mary Baker (Glover, 
Patterson) : her birth, 17, 37 
girlhood, of, 17, 38 
she marries George Washington 

Glover, 17 
widowhood of, 17 
she gives birth to a son, 18 
marries Dr. Patterson, 18 
visits P. P. Quimby, 18 
her wandering years, 18, 43 
discovery of Christian Science, 

19, 36, 40 f 
partnership with Richard Ken- 
nedy, 18 
she marries Asa Gilbert Eddy, 18 
her dread of mabcious animal 

magnetism, chap. VI, 95 f 
the witchcraft case, 100 
her husband's death, 107 
she found a Church, 19 
Calvin A. Frye, 18 
Mrs. Eddy adopts Dr. Foster, 18 
differences with Mrs. Stetson, 

239 f 
her relations with her son, 18 
death of, 20 
her last will, 23 fn 
her teaching, 153 
her business abibties, 237 

see: Christian Science. Science 
and Health, mental heahng 
Egypt, mental heabng in, 2 
their conception of sickness and 

death, 3 
their healing methods, 3 
Emanation vs. Creation, 200 
Emerson's idealism, 69 
Emmanuel movement, 33 
Epicurianism, a refined, 203 
Epidaurus, temple at, 4 
Error, see bebef 

Ethics of modern mind movements, 
chap. XIII, 192 
see: sin, antinomianism, epicurian- 
ism 



Index 



265 



Eucharist, the, 178 

Evans, first New Thought author, 17 

his methods of healing, 137 

on miracles of Christ, 209 

on Confession, 134 
Evil, existence of, 153, 155 f 

unreality of, 169, 174 

nature of, 155 

see: belief, matter 

Failures in mental healing, 134 f 
Faith in mental healing, 133 f, 227 f 
in the subject, 231 
in the practitioner, 132 
of Christian Scientists, 203 
its meaning in Christian Science, 
84 
Faith cures, Hudson on, 130 
Faria, the abb6, and mesmerism, 14 
Farmer, Miss and Greenacre Con- 
ferences, 28 
Fear, its effects on health, 168, 170, 
196 
cannot be entirely banished, 205 
Fetish worship and mental healing, 

9 
Fillmore, on mental suggestion, 139 
on thought causes, 204 
on New Thought Creed, 180 
Fincastle, Lord, 25 
Foster, Dr., adopted by Mrs. Eddy, 

19 
Freud, and Psycho-Analysis, 31 
Frye, Calvin A., 19 

Gassner and mental healing, 10, 11 
Generation, spiritual, 199, 239 
Gestefeld, Mrs., and Christian Sci- 
ence, 29 
Glover, George Washington, husband 
of Mrs. Eddy, 17 
son of Mrs. Eddy, 18, 236 
his relations with his mother, 
237 

suit of next friends', 237 
Gnosticism and Christian Science, 

175 
God, nature of, 70, 172 
His Principle, 63, 64 
goodness of, 203 
see: Pantheism > prayer, Revela- 
tion 
Greece, mental healing in, 4 
Greenacre conferences, 28 

Healing, see mental healing 
Health, overemphasized, 173, 192 



Healthy-mindedness, 118, 202 

Heart and affections, 168 

Heaven, meaning of, 180 

Hell, existence of, 196 

Hickson and Christian healing, 32 

Homes of truth, 29 

Hopkins, Mrs., 129 

Hudson, on healing methods, 130 
on miracles, 214, 215 

Hume, on miracles, 216 

Huse, on Mrs. Eddy and Mrs. Stet- 
son, 253 

Hygiene, minimized, 130 

Hypnotism, Hudson on, 131 
hypnotic healing, 15, 158 
Mrs. Eddy's hostility to, 76, 98, 
157 

Ibn Sina, see Avicenna 
Idealism, and Christian Science, 68 
and New Thought, 69 
see Emerson 
Imagination, meditating between 
sense and intellect, 148 f 
its effects on the body, 14, 164 
cause of sickness, 164 
see: Benedict XIV, Delrio, Du- 
bray, Mark Twain 
InteUect and mental healing, 147, 

163 f 
Intellection dependent on sense, 

148 
Intention, ethical importance of, 203 

Jesus, as distinct from Christ, 176, 
208 
his divinity denied, 176 
see Christ, miracles 
James, Fannie B., 29 
James, William, on healthy-minded- 
ness, 118, 202 
John, St., Gospel according to, on 
miracles, 222 

Kansas City, Christian Science in, 
27, 29 

Kennedy, Richard, partner of Mrs. 
Eddy, 18, 92, 95 

Key to the Scripture, 61 

Kratzer, on reformed Christian Sci- 
ence, 235, 252, 

Le Roy, on fetish worship, 9 
Liberalism, in Christian Science 

theology, 89, 173 
Literature on mental healing, 30 
see bibliography, 249 f 



266 



Index 



Litigations, Mrs. Eddy's, 253 
the witchcraft trial, 100 
the murder trial, 101 fn 
the next friends' suit, 236 

Logic in Christian Science, 75 

Lourdes, miracles of, 232 

Love, as a curative disposition, 140, 
206 

Lynn, fall at, 41 

Magic and healing, 2, 6 

see mental healing 
Malicious animal magnetism, nature 
of, chap. VI, 78, 91 
two kinds of animal magnetism, 

101 
its various names, 96 
its place in Christian Science, 97, 

108 
Mrs. Eddy's increasing dread of, 

93 f 
courts to take cognizance of, 99 
see: witchcraft case, Spofford, 
Mrs. Eddy 
Man, nature of, 69, 72 
Manichaeism vs. Christian Science, 

175 
Manipulation, practiced by Mrs. 
Eddy, 93 
discarded, 157 
Mark Twain, on obscurity of Chris- 
tian Science philosophy, 60 
on spread of Christian Science, 
24 fn 
Marriage, depreciated by Mrs. 
Eddy, 198 
see generation 
Maspero, on Egyptian mental heal- 
ing, 3 
Matter, unrealitv of, 66 
reality of, 67 
creation of, 65 
see senses 
Maury, on magic, 6 
M.D., see physician 
Meek, Miss, cure of, 112 
Mental healing, prevalence of, 1 
in antiquity, 1 f, chap. I 
in modern times, 10 f, chap. II 
possibibty of, 147 f 
failures of, 134 f 
extent of, Sadler, Walsh, "Worces- 
ter, Mrs. Eddy, Evans, 121 f 
see: faith, disease, methods, 
mind-cures 
Mental malpractice, see malicious 
animal magnetism 



Mesmer, founder of mesmerism, 10, 
11 
his "baquet," 12 
his philosophy, 12 
Mesmerism, in France, 13 

in England, Germany and Rus- 
sia, 14 
in the United States, 15 
see: hypnotism, malicious ani- 
mal magnetism 
Metaphysical Club, 28 
Methods of mental healing, chap. 
VIII, 129 
Hudson's classification of, 130 
Christian Science and New 

Thought methods, 131 
tactual treatment, 136 
silent treatment, 137 
distant treatment, 138 
Milmine, Georgine, on Mrs. Eddy's 
education, 39 
on her wandering years, 43 fn 
on Science and Health, 47 f 
on character of Mrs. Eddy's phi- 
losophy, 97 
on the witchcraft trial, 100 
Mills, Anne W., and New Thought 

healing, 29 
Mind, Divine, as curative agency, 

63, 75 
.Mind is one, 63 

human, an autocrat, 80 
open to suggestions, 163 
subconscious or subliminal mind, 

160 
source of mental cures, 154,, 161 f 
a healthy mind, 202 
mortal, meaning of, 76 f 
works of, 78 
the source of all evil, 78 
and body, interrelations between, 
chap. IX, 143 f 
see soul and body 
mind-cures, reality of, chap. VII, 

109 f, 118 f 
Hudson on, 109,130 
testimonials as to, 127 
reported in Science and Health, 

110 
in the Journal, 111 
in the Congressional Record, 111 
explanations of, 153; Mrs. Eddy's 
explanations, 153; natural ex- 
planations, 157, chap. X, 153 f 
see: faith, mental healing 
Miracles, chap. XIV, 208 f; mean- 
ing of, 217 



Index 



267 



Miracles, and natural law, 215 
explained as psychical phenomena, 

208 f 
explanations by Quimby, 209; 
Evans, 209; Hudson, 215; the 
Emmanuel movement, 211; 
Eddy, 211; Davies, 227, 229 
the existence of real miracles, 228 
ecclesiastical miracles, 232 
attacks on Christ's miracles, 216 f 
Miscellaneous Writings, 57 
Moral rectitude, essential to healers 

and patients, 132 
Mortal mind, see mind 
Mother, the title Mother, 58 fn 
Mysticism in Christian Science, 71 

Nancy school of hypnotism, 31 
New Thought, meaning of the name, 
16 fn 

relations to Christian Science, 16 

beginnings of, 26 

literature, 27 

conventions, 29 

Creed, 180 
Next Friends' suit, 237 
New York, Christian Science in, 238 ; 
New Thought in, 27 

see Stetson 

Origen, on miracles, 5 

Paget, Dr., on testimonials of cures, 

127 
Pantheism of Christian Science, 63 

of modern mind-healers, 141 
Paracelsus, founder of magnetic 

healing, 10 
Paralytic, the miracle of the, 227 
Paris school of hypnotism, 18 
Paul, St., on the effects of the Spirit, 

204, 248 
Peabody, on Mrs. Eddy's claims, 59 

on Mr. Wiggin's revision, 51 
Persia, magic in, 2 
Pharisee and Publican, 182 
Physicians, Mrs. Eddy's hostility to, 
124 
permission to consult physicians, 

124 
attend her dying husband, 107 
make an autopsy, 107 
Plato's plurabty of souls, 145 
Podmore, Frank, on Gassner and 

Mesmer, 11 
Poyen, and mesmerism in America, 
J6 



Pragmatism, no sure test of truth, 

171, 173, 192 
Prayer, meaning of, 188 

prayers of petition condemned, 

184, 186 
no remission of sin through pray- 
er, 183 
is injurious, 186 
objections to, 185 
audible prayer condemned, 187 
spiritual interpretation of the 
Lord's Prayer, 190 
Principle, God is, 63, 64 
Private Meeting, or P.M., 105 
Protestant churches and Christian 

Science, 32 
Psycho-Analysis, 32 

Quimby, Phineas Parkhurst, life of, 
15 

becomes a mesmerist, 16 

his cures, 16 

his methods of healing, 136 

his system, 16 

his manuscripts, 47 

and Mrs. Eddy; the Quimby con- 
troversy, 46 

on Christ's miracles, 209 

Readers, two readers appointed for 
church services, 54 
can make no explanations, 55 
Reed, Dr. Eleanor, on mental heal- 
ing, 120 
on Christian Science cures, 169 
Relapses, how to be met, 135 
Religion, its subordinate place in 
Christian Science, 172 
contributes to success of Chris- 
tian Science, 35 
Renouf, on Egyptian beliefs in sick- 
ness and death, 2 
Revelation, Christian Science no 

new, 36 f, 43, 172 
Reville, Albert, on fetish worship, 9 
Rome, mental healing in, 4 

Sabin, and reformed Christian Sci- 
ence, 30 

Sacraments rejected, 178 

Sadler, on mental healing, 126, 168 

St. Louis, mental healing in, 29 

Salvation, meaning of, 179 

San Francisco, Christian Science in, 
29 

Scholasticism, avoids both material- 
ism and idealism, 143 



Index 



Scholasticism, explains mind healing, 
145 f 
see mind and body, soul, St. 
Thomas 
Science and Health, the textbook, 
19, 44 
history of the book, 61 
make-up of, 45 f 
first edition of, 45; sale of, 47; 
second edition of, 48 f ; sub- 
sequent editions, 53 ; Mr. Wig- 
gin's revision, 50 
ordained pastor, 54 
takes precedence over the Bible, 

53 
necessary to every Christian Sci- 
entist, 54 
Scriptures, spiritual interpretation 

of the, 60 
Searle, on reality of mind-cures, 
156 
on Christian Science cures, 156 
Senses, deemed untrustworthy, 154 
pains of sense sometimes consid- 
ered useful, 193 
Serapis, and mental healing, 4 
Sickness, deemed a false belief, 79 f 

often a means of grace, 193 f 
Silence, entering into the, 137 
Simon Magus, 5 

Sin, Christian Science concept of, 
196 
reality and unreality of, 194 f 
genesis of, 196 
guilt and punishment of, 197 
supernatural sanctions dropped, 

197 
remission of, 183, 197 
sin and sickness classed together, 

193 
Mrs. Eddy's own sense of sin, 198 
Snowden, on progress of Christian 
Science, 23 
on lack of order in Science and 

Health, 60 
on Christian Science antinomian- 
ism, 194 
Soul, individuality of souls denied, 
63 f, 145 
the forma substantialis of the 

body, 144 
its functions, 146 
its unicity, 145 f 
Spofford, his relations with Mrs. 
Eddy, 47 f, 237 
incurs Mrs. Eddy's displeasure, 
48 



Spofford, the witchcraft and the 

murder trial, 100 
Stetson, Mrs., founder of Christian 
Science in New York, 238 
difficulties with Mrs. Eddy, 239 f 
the "findings and orders," 242 
principal of New York Christian 

Science Institute, 244 
her difficulties with First Church 
of Christ Scientist, 247 
suggestion as a therapeutic agent, 
158 
effectiveness of, 160 
truth not necessary to effective 
suggestions, 161 
Sumeria, mental healing in, 1 
Superstition, condemned by the 
Church, 10 
in Christian Science, 96 
Surbled, on hypnotism, 14 fn 
Synoptics, on Christ's miracles, 224 f 



Thomas Aquinas, St., on the soul, 
145 
on the faculties of the soul, 147 
on the imagination, 147 
Thought transference, 204 
Townsend's challenge to Mrs. Eddy, 

128 
Trine, and New Thought, 27 



Understanding, as opposed to belief, 
84f 
its prominence in Christian Sci- 
ence, 85 
see: intellect, belief 
Unitarianism and Christian Science, 
see liberalism 



Virgin Birth, 176 f 



Walsh, James J., on psychotherapy, 

126, 151 
Washington, D. C, headquarters 

for New Thought, 30 
Wentworth, Mrs., and Mrs. Eddv, 

44 
Wheeler, Mrs.; and Mrs. Eddy, 

43 
Wiggin, revises the textbook, 50 
his opinion of Mrs. Eddy and 

Christian Science, 51 
Will, functions of the, 163 



Index 269 

Will, essentially evil, 161 Worcester, on suggestion and auto- 
suggestibility of the, 163 suggestion, 160 
Wine, alleged cure of a baby child, on extent of mental healing, 122 

113 on miracles, 211 

Witchcraft trial, 100 Works, Senator, on Christian Sci- 

Woodbury, Mrs., and the Prince ence cures, 111 

of Peace, 201 Wright, W. W., and Mrs. Eddy, 92 



Universitas Catholica Americae 
WashingtoniIj D. C. 
S. Facultas Theologica 
1921-1922 

No. 18 



THESES 



DEU8 LUX ME A 



THESES 

QUAS 

AD DOCTORATUM 



SACRA THEOLOGIA 



Apud Universitatem Catholicam Americae 

CONSEQUENDUM 



PUBLICE PROPUGNABIT 

AUGUSTINUS MATTHIAS BELLWALD 

SACERDOS SOCIETATIS MARIAE 

S. THEOL. LICENTIATUS 



HORA IX A. M. DIE VII IUNII A. D. MCMXXII 



THESES 



In Christian Science healing there is nothing that essentially 
distinguishes it from other kinds of faith-healing; consequently, its 
successes, real or apparent, cannot be accepted as proving a sup- 
posedly supernatural origin. 

2 

Christian Science is largely an adaptation and semi-religious 
elaboration of theories and healing practices which originated with 
therapeutic mesmerism. 

8 

The doctrinal basis of Christian Science and New Thought is to 
be sought in the extreme liberal and unitarian wing of Protestantism. 



There is absolutely no parallel between modern mental cures and 
the miracles of Christ and any candid comparison must bring out 
the clearer the supernatural character of the latter. 



The rules of investigation and criticism laid down by Hume, 
John Stewart Mill and Renan for a so-called scientific demonstration 
of the reality of miracles are not bona fide rules intended to foster 
the acquisition of truth, but they imply an a priori denial of the 
existence of miracles. 

6 

The rules laid down by Pope Benedict XIV and by Catholic 
theologians generally to establish the reality of miraculous facts 
are fair, adequate and reliable. 



To say that Christ did not intend his miracles to serve as creden- 
tials to His divine mission is to set aside arbitrarily the evidence of 
both the Johannine and the Synoptic Gospels. 



Theses 



8 



Christ's miracles are today what they always were, criteria of 
the first order for the divine origin of Christianity and Immanentists 
are ill-advised when they think to find a substitute for them in per- 
sonal religious experiences. 

9 

Loisy, while ably refuting Harnack's contention that "the es- 
sence of Christianity consists solely in faith in God the Father as 
revealed by Jesus-Christ," exposes himself to the same charge of 
one-sided criticism when in turn he attempts to show that Christ's 
message was essentially eschatological. Loisy: The Gospel and the 
Church, p. 3. 

10 

The attempt "to distinguish between the personal religion of 
Jesus and the way in which His disciples have understood it" is 
not only difficult as Loisy contends, but impossible. Loisy, ibid., 
p. 12. 



The contention that "Christ never gave His definition of the 
Kingdom of God . . . because it is identified in His thought as in 
the minds of His hearers with that which the prophets have fore- 
told" cannot be defended in the sense that Loisy gives to these 
words. Loisy, ibid., p. 64-. 

12 

Harnack's arguments against the genuineness of the Petrine text 
in Matt. 16:16-18 are not of such a nature as to bring conviction. 

13 

Modernists wrongly establish an opposition between the Christ 
of faith and the Christ of history, attributing the former to the 
spontaneous efforts of the faith to define itself as well as to the 
exigencies of propagandism in the Greco-Roman world. Cf. Loisy, 
ibid., p. 192. 

14 

It is certain that the religious society which Christ had in mind 
was not merely something invisible and heavenly, as Harnack eon- 



Theses 

tends, but something visible and external, destined to teach and 
guide the believers into all truth and holiness. Cf. Harnack, Das 
Wesen des Christentums, p. 34 and passim. 

15 

When Loisy asserts that "infallibility in a terrestrial theocracy 
signifies nothing more at bottom than absolute sovereignty in an 
ordinary state/' he gives to infallibility an arbitrary and wholly 
un theological meaning. Loisy, ibid., p. 144. 

16 

"The Christian faith and religion" is not, as Loisy insinuates, "a 
perpetual and universal work, to which each contributes, and from 
which each derives benefit," but it is of divine institution with the 
Church appointed to guard and teach it. 

17-22 

By the decree Lamentabili of July 31, 1907, the H. Office rightly 
condemns the following propositions: 

XX. Revelatio nihil aliud esse potuit quam acquisita ab homine 
suae ad Deum relationis conscientia. 

XXI. Revelatio, obiectum fldei Catholicae constituens, non fuit 
cum Apostolis completa. 

XXXIII. Evidens est cuique qui praeconceptis non ducitur opin- 
ionibus, Iesum aut errorem de proximo Messianico adventu fnisse 
professum, aut maiorem partem ipsius doctrinae in Evangeliis 
Synopticis contentae authenticitate carere. 

XXXVI. Resurrectio Salvatoris non est proprie factum ordinis 
historici, sed factum ordinis vere supernaturalis, nee demonstratum, 
nee demonstrabile, quod conscientia Christiana sensim ex aliis 
derivavit. 

LIII. Constitutio organica Ecclesiae non est immutabilis, sed 
societas Christiana perpetuae evolutioni aeque ac societas humana 
est obnoxia. 

LXV. Catholicismus hodiernus cum vera scientia componi nequit 
nisi transformetur in quemdam Christianismum non dogmaticum, 
id est in Protestantismum latum et liberalem. 

23 

The so-called Lambeth Quadrilateral, both on account of what 
it contains and of what it omits, could not be accepted as a possible 
basis for reunion. 



Theses 



24 



The proposed World Conference on Faith and Order is bound 
to fail in its aim to bring about the reunion of Christendom as long 
as it slights the historical foundations on which the Church of 
Christ is built. 



25 

Church unity, as established by Christ, implies unity of doctrine, 
not compromise, or comprehension ; unity of worship, not a latitudin- 
arian exchange of pulpits; and unity of government, not a federa- 
tion of independent churches. 

26-30 

Recte damnantur per decretum Lamentabili sequentes proposi- 
tions : 

XXIII. Existere potest et reapse existit oppositio inter facta 
quae in Sacra Scriptura narrantur eisque innixa Ecclesiae dogmata, 
ita ut criticus tamquam falsa reicere possit facta, quae Ecclesia 
tanquam certissima credit. 

XXVI. Dogmata fidei retinenda sunt tantummodo iuxta sensum 
practicum, i.e., tanquam norma praeceptiva agendi, non vero tan- 
quam norma credendi. 

XXVII. Divinitas Iesu Christi ex Evangeliis non probatur; sed 
est dogma quod conscientia Christiana e notione Messiae deduxit. 

XXXIV. Criticus nequit asserere Christo scientiam nullam cir- 
cumscriptam limite, nisi facta hypothesi, quae historice haud concipi 
potest, quaeque sensui morali repugnat, nempe Christum uti hominem 
habuisse scientiam Dei et nihilominus noluisse notitiam tot rerum 
communicare cum discipulis ac posteritate. 

XXXVIII. Doctrina de morte piaculari Christi non est Evan- 
gelica sed tantum Paulina. 

81 

Transformismus mitigatus non adversatur fidei et libere propug- 
nari potest. 

32 

Attamen salten temeraria esset assertio etiam corpus humanum 
per longam et continuam evolutionem provenisse ab inferioribus 
corporibus animalibus, non tamen certo esset contra fidem. 



Theses 



33 



Contra Suarezium aliosque propugnamus sententiam hominem 
in statu lapsae naturae debiliorem esse homine in statu naturae 
purae. 

34 

Contra multos Acatholicos theologos contendimus Verbum Incar- 
natum se suis divinis non exspoliasse attributis, et proinde reiciendam 
esse earn quae kenotica dicitur theoria. 

95 

Contra Modernistas defendimus thesim Catholicam dogma Trin- 
itatis non esse doctrinam a Graecis mutuatam, sed esse vere doc- 
trinam revelatam. 



Novae Legis sacramenta naturalem non habuerunt originem, sed 
sunt a Christo Domino instituta, et quidem immediate. 

37 

Probabilius videtur Christum non determinasse materiam et 
formam omnium sacramentorum usque ad ultimas individuationes, 
sed Ecclesiae potestatem reliquisse aliqualem etiam in materiam et 
formam. 

38 

Ad validitatem baptismi requiritur in adulto intentio saltern ha- 
bitualis recipiendi sacramentum; ad fructuositatem autem, insuper, 
requiruntur fides et poenitentia ; ad liceitatem vero observandae sunt 
regulae liturgicae et canonicae. 

39 

Essentia sacrificii Missae consistit non in destructione panis et 
vini., nee in productione Christi super altare, neque in eo quod 
corpus et sanguis Christi ponuntur in statu decliviori, nee in con- 
secratione quatenus est actio de se tendens ad veram et realem 
occisionem, sed probabiliter in eo quod Deo Patri offertur victima 
iam immolata. 

40 

Praeplacet sententia eorum qui tenent episcopatum esse ordinem 
distinctum a presbyteratu conferentem plenitudinem presbyteratus 
et ordinationem episcopalem diacono collatam plenitudinem conferre 
potestatis sacerdotalis. 



Theses 

41-45 

can. 451-460 De Nominatione Parochorum. 
can. 2147-2161 De Remotione Parochorum. 
can. 542-546 De Novitiatu. 
can. 762-759 De Patrinis. 
can. 824-835 De Stipendiis. 



46 



Non omnes leges civiles obligant in conscientia ad adimpletionem 
legis; leges enim quae dicuntur mere poenales obligant vel ad legem 
servandam vel, si transgressor legis deprehensus et damnatus fuerit, 
ad mulctum solvendum vel poenam subeundam. 

47 
Omnes homines per se tenentur ad laborem aliquem utilem et 
honestum, neque ab hac obligatione excusantur ii qui abundanter 
habent unde vivant. 

48 

Spectata hodierna conditione socialis vitae non est amplius 
peccatum iniustitiae vel usurae moderatum foenus accipere, etiam ab 
eo qui utpote pauper mutuata pecunia utitur ad necessitates vitae. 
Attamen caritatis obligatio aliquando urgere potest ad verum seu 
gratuitum mutuum. 

49 

Contractus de obiecto turpi aut peccaminoso nullomodo obligat 
ante contractus executionem; post executionem autem, a prima 
parte, actus turpis aut peccaminosi, ex circumstantiis iudicandum 
est utrum an non altera pars ad pretium solvendum tenenda sit. 

50 

Homo in alios homines plenum dominium habere nequit; ius 
autem in alterius labores et operationem alterum habere, per se 
quidem non repugnat, at etiam eiusmodi ius saltern minus decet 
dignitatem humanam, et ex legibus civilibus omnino tollitur. 

51 

Though the Christian liturgy was based in part on the services 
of the synagogues and was gradually perfected during the course 
of the first three centuries, it was and remained, nevertheless, es- 
sentially Christian, i.e., it was based on the Christian Revelation 
and not influenced in essentials by the Pagan mysteries. 



Theses 



52 



It must be considered as historically certain that at least from 
the end of the second century on Roman and Catholic as attributes 
of the Church were in a way synonymous. 

53 

History shows that the Roman Primacy dates back to the 
very first ages of Christianity, and it certainly does not prove 
that this Primacy must be ascribed to the importance of the city 
of Rome as capital of the empire. 

54 

Modernism owes its origin to, and developed along the lines of, 
Liberal Protestantism, starting with a naturalistic exegesis of the 
Sacred Scriptures. 

55 

Attempts at Reunion have always failed in the past owing to the 
practical impossibility of finding a common basis that could be ac- 
ceptable to all the parties involved. 

56 

For a critical study of the Pentateuch Catholics must take as a 
norm the decisions of the Biblical Commission of June 27, 1906. 

57 

The objections raised against the Mosaic authorship of the 
Pentateuch are not conclusive and do not overthrow the traditional 
opinion as to its authorship. 

58 

The writings of the New Testament traditionally ascribed to 
Saint John the Apostle have really Saint John for their author. 

59 
The Acts of the Apostles must be considered a homogeneous 
work whose Lukan authorship is not doubtful. 

60 

Inspiration must be considered a sufficient guaranty for the com- 
plete trustworthiness of the Scriptures. 



BIOGRAPHICAL 

Augustine Matthias Bellwald was born September 14, 1881, 
at Niederkerchen, Grand Duchy of Luxemburg. His classical 
studies were equally divided between the G. D. Gymnasium of 
Diekirch, Grand Duchy of Luxemburg, and the Marist Mis- 
sion House at Differt, near Messancy, Belgium (1895-1901). 
In 1901 he entered the Novitiate of the Society of Mary at 
Washington, D. C, where also he pursued his theological 
studies. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1907 and spent 
the following eight years in parochial work in West Virginia. 
In 1915 he was called by his superiors to teach in the Prepara- 
tory Seminary and at the Scholasticate of the Marist Society 
in Washington, D. C, where he taught successively Apologetics 
and Dogmatic Theology. In 1919 he matriculated at the 
Catholic University of America where he received the S. T. B. 
and the S. T. L. in 1920. He is specializing in Apologetics. 






lowj 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper proca 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date. April 2006 

PreservationTechnologie 



LIBRARY 



CONGRESS 




